PETER VAN ONSELEN: How Labor is shipping Bill Shorten off to the most unlikely of destinations to escape scrutiny for one of the biggest rorts in Australia’s history

Then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy personally calls our Prime Minister to request that he or the Deputy Prime Minister attend a peace summit Ukraine what do you do when you are Anthony Albanese?

Go yourself? No of course not.

Send Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles instead? The Ukrainians said they would be happy with that, and Marles is the defense minister after all. No.

Send the Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong? She is responsible for Australia’s foreign affairs. No.

Okay, it seems like a bit of a slight to the Ukrainians, but if none of the above people are willing or able, I think you should send the Assistant Secretary of Defense or the Assistant Secretary of State in their place, However? Wrong.

The Australian representative at the Ukrainian peace summit to be held in Switzerland in the middle of this month will be… the Minister of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten.

Rejected: The Ukrainian President (photo) has asked our Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister to attend his peace summit. They said no

Bill Shorten (pictured) is on his way to Switzerland to attend the peace summit on Ukraine

Perhaps he has discovered some important ‘lessons’ (not a real word, I know, but it’s the jargon in Canberra) about disability care that he wants to pass on to the Ukrainians in the wake of their ongoing battle for the nation, now that the invasion of Russia continues.

Or perhaps Shorten would like to explain to them why Australia’s jobs and skills experts have found that no one from overseas can migrate here with vocational training in disability support.

As Daily Mail Australia revealed earlier today, disability support workers are on the skilled migration rejection list, even though yoga instructors, dog handlers and kung fu experts are all acceptable.

Of course, none of these are reasons why Albo and Penny Wong (it’s really just Wong, Albo doesn’t have much interest in foreign affairs) decided to send Shorten on this diplomatic peace tour.

They did this because, as Wong says, Shorten is a former Labor leader (in opposition) and he has never held a foreign affairs portfolio or even sits on the Cabinet’s national security committee.

Okay, she didn’t make these last two points, I did, but they also happen to be true.

However, Wong also said Shorten “has been a very strong voice in support of the Ukrainian people.”

Oh, I didn’t realize that, maybe because I haven’t read anything he’s written on the subject. Maybe they just show how poorly I read.

But now that I know that, maybe I can go too? I’ve had a few thoughts about the tragic situation there.

Or perhaps because I know little about the delicate issues of diplomacy and conflict with Russia, and because I am not part of the government’s security and foreign affairs team, I am not the best person to go.

That would apply to me, as it would to Shorten. Yet he flies away…

No one should blame Shorten for this stupid decision; he is simply the beneficiary of it. Who wouldn’t want to travel to Europe for free?

Call me cynical, but shortening overseas shipping at a time when his NDIS portfolio is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons can’t have anything to do with the decision, right? If so, they should also send Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

Of course not.

Despite their request for attendance, neither the Prime Minister (photo) nor Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles (photo) were willing to attend the peace summit

I’m talking about revelations that billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have been wasted on NDIS reports. NDIS money has been spent on everything from sex workers to cocaine, although I’m not sure if that was at the same time. The reports I have read have not clarified that possibility.

It has also been revealed that a former Kevin Rudd speechwriter is now in the NDIS department and is being paid $620,000 under a two-year contract.

At least Shorten will give a good speech when he is in Switzerland.