In the first half of 2019 Australian foreign policy was tumultuous, marked by the federal election on 18 May 2019. The election was won, somewhat unexpectedly, by the Coalition and returned Scott Morrison as Prime Minister. The initial moves of the Prime Minister, new Foreign Minister Marise Payne and new Defence Minister Senator Linda Reynolds in the diplomatic sphere were conducted against the backdrop of intense debates about “strategic competition” between China and the United States of America in our region.1 As 2019 began, many volatile events lay on the immediate horizon for Australian foreign policy, but due focus on these events was interrupted by the election. This chronicle considers how nimble Australian diplomacy was able to be during the first half of 2019, with some broader implications for the transitional nature of Australian foreign policy. When the then foreign minister, Julie Bishop, commissioned the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, she noted it was designed to help Australian diplomacy be more proactive. She said: “[…] it's about looking at the kind of framework that needs to be in place so that we're not reacting to events, we're strategically positioned to manage, maybe even shape, events”.