People cannot be appointed to senior ambassador roles (like the US, UK, Japan, and UN ambassadors) if they were members of parliament or a territory legislature in the last 10 years.

People with a disqualifying or significant political affiliation cannot act as a chargé d'affaires in one of these senior ambassador roles.

The Foreign Affairs Minister must terminate an appointment or acting arrangement as soon as possible if it was made against these rules.

The Foreign Affairs Minister must give the Selection Committee a list of 2 to 10 candidates; this list cannot include people with disqualifying political affiliations and can only include a small number of people with a significant political affiliation.

Selection Committees must recommend a candidate or refer the matter back to the Foreign Affairs Minister within 2 months.

The Foreign Affairs Minister must ensure Selection Committee members have a balance of expertise in areas like diplomacy, foreign policy, or public administration.

The Foreign Affairs Minister must table a statement in Parliament explaining why a candidate lacks a significant political affiliation if the Foreign Affairs Minister approves the appointment personally (without a committee recommendation).

The Commonwealth cannot appoint someone to one of these senior ambassador roles if that person has a disqualifying political affiliation.

For these senior ambassador roles, the Foreign Affairs Minister can set up a three-member Selection Committee. This committee must have a balance of expertise in areas like diplomacy, foreign policy, and international trade.

The Foreign Affairs Minister can make rules to add more diplomatic offices to this fixed list of senior ambassador roles.