Michael John Costello AO is a former senior Australian public servant and chief of staff to former Australian Labor Party politician Kim Beazley during Beazley's tenure as Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001.
[4] On leaving DFAT, he became the CEO of ACTEW Corporation, the Australian Capital Territory's electricity and water authority.
[3] In 2004, he was highly critical of Mark Latham for Labor's federal election defeat to the Howard government.
[5] In 2008, he wrote a weekly column for The Australian supportive of Beazley and Labor's economic policies during the Hawke and Keating years.
[6][7] On 26 June 2010, Costello had a final column published in The Australian concerning the federal ALP's dumping of Kevin Rudd in favour of Julia Gillard.