As former US ambassadorJoe Hockey said when her appointment was announced in December:“President Biden is sending someone from Democratic Party royalty to represent him in Australia.”

The 64-year-old is the sole remaining child of John F Kennedy,who was assassinated by a gunman in 1963 just three years into his presidency. Her uncle Bobby was shot dead five years later while campaigning for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Her brother John junior died in a plane crash at 38;sister Arabella was stillborn and brother Patrick died at just two days old.

Asked about being a member of a storied political dynasty,Kennedy joked:“You mean you didn’t all come out here for the last person?”

But she knows she arrives in Australia with a star power few diplomats can match. “My family legacy is something I’m really proud of and I try to live up to,” she said. “The fact it means something to people around the world makes me really proud and I want to be worthy of it and continue the values my father lived by.”

Kennedy served as US ambassador to Japan during the Obama administration,an appointment that initially attracted criticism because of a lack of foreign policy experience.

However,her tenure was later hailed a success;last year she was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun,the highest Japanese honour available to foreigners.

Kennedy noted she has a long affinity for Australia:she and husband Edwin came to Australia during their honeymoon 36 years ago. And her father was rescued by an Australian coast watcher and two Solomon Islanders while serving in the Pacific during World War II.

“Personally,this means a great deal to me,” she said of her appointment. The US and Australia,she added,have a “big agenda” to pursue together,pointing to co-operation in the Pacific and the Quad strategic grouping that also includes Japan and India.

As ambassador in Canberra,Kennedy is expected to work largely behind the scenes to advance the bilateral relationship and push back on an increasingly aggressive China.

She’s already made clear,though,that she can be assertive as well as dignified. It’s a lesson for Australian politicians to keep in mind,as well as impatient male journalists at future press conferences.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley.Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.