Sage bush communicates with King perhaps (5,9)

I believe the answer is:

elder statesman

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'sage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'bush communicates with king perhaps' is the wordplay.
'bush' becomes 'elder' (elder is a kind of bush).
'communicates with' becomes 'states' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'king perhaps' becomes 'man' (king is a kind of man).
'elder'+'states'+'man'='ELDER STATESMAN'

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(Other definitions for elder statesman that I've seen before include "veteran politician - with 17d" , "Perhaps Clinton" , "Experienced politician" , "member with gravitas" , "John Major?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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