TIM Fischer has ended his career in public life with a typically wily gesture during his final audience with the Pope as Australia's ambassador to the Vatican.
The former deputy prime minister knew his farewell visit was meant to be a ceremonial event rather than an opportunity to push any policy agenda, but he could not help himself.
"I spent a few months thinking about the fact that departing ambassadors do get a brief visit in which you have the Pope's undivided attention, but it's normally a bit of a wasted opportunity," Mr Fischer said.
To the surprise of his advisers, the Pope left the meeting carrying a book on food security by journalist Julian Cribb.
"I decided to chance my arm and present it to the Pope as a farewell gift because the issue of revitalising agriculture is very much in line with Australian government policy and it is one of my priority issues," Mr Fischer said.
"The Pope had previously expressed a great interest in the issue and even if he doesn't read the book himself, I'm sure one of his advisers will go through it and brief him on its main points."
The five-minute audience, which was also attended by Mr Fischer's wife, Judy, and teenage sons Harrison and Dominic, marked the end of his three-year tenure as Australia's first full-time ambassador to the Holy See.
Cribb, a former science and agriculture correspondent for The Australian, was delighted to learn that Mr Fischer had gained such an influential reader for his book, entitled The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do to Avoid It.
"The Pope has made several public statements expressing concern about the adequacy of our food supply and the fact that the food system is already creating misery for the poor," Cribb said.
The book argues that by the middle of this century, the world will be unable to feed itself unless there are radical changes to agriculture, land and water usage, diet and the way modern cities recycle resources.
"I think it is the biggest challenge we face because it is even more immediate than climate change," Cribb said. "As things stand, we will probably lose about a quarter of our food supply in the next few decades at a time when the world's population will grow from seven billion to 10 billion."
Cribb's book was expected to reach only a small audience when it was published but he has already been invited to discuss it with senior European politicians and bankers in Germany and The Netherlands.
Mr Fischer, 65, said he had been offered a fourth year in Rome by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd but has opted to return to Australia on Australia Day to end a career that spanned three decades in the NSW and federal parliaments.