Parliament of Australia lists Alexander Downer as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. King’s College London calls him Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister and uses the same 1996–2007 span. A 31 March 2014 media release from then–Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, announcing his appointment as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, recites the same ministerial service.
The official honours record lists a Companion of the Order of Australia awarded on 25 January 2013 (Australia Day 2013 Honours List) for eminent service to the Parliament through international relations and foreign policy. Parliament’s member page records the AC as 26 January 2013. Those are honor-roll facts. They do not decide what happened in a London wine bar in 2016.
After leaving the House he served as the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus (2008–2014), as later summarized by DFAT, the National Archives of Australia Downer-family fact sheet, and the King’s College line. That is a U.N. advisory title. It is not a U.S. intelligence rank.