Stuart Harris (public servant)

Stuart Francis Harris AO (born 14 March 1931) is a retired Australian senior public servant. He was born in London, England.[1][2]

Stuart Harris AO
Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs
In office 3 September 1984 – 24 July 1987
Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs
In office 24 July 1987 – 3 July 1988
Personal details
Born	Stuart Francis Harris 14 March 1931 London, England
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	University of Sydney Australian National University
Occupation	Public servant

Early life

Harris grew up in London, attending Tottenham Grammar School. In 1947, at age 16, he moved to Australia under the auspices of the Big Brother Movement, a scheme to facilitate young Britons to move to Australia and work on the land. After some time working on farms, Harris took a job at the Tax Department and enrolled in evening classes in economics at the University of Sydney, eventually winning a government scholarship to complete his honours year.

Career

After completing his honours degree, Harris took a job in Canberra, initially in the Taxation Department, before moving to the Department of Trade, where he began working closely with (later Sir) John Crawford, who encouraged him to undertake a PhD at the Australian National University.

In 1962 Harris joined the then Bureau of Agricultural Economics, now Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, initially as a senior economist. After a visit to Colombia as part of a Harvard Advisory Service[3] mission, he accepted the position of Director, where he was considered to have “contributed to the development of a more professional approach to policy analysis in the BAE.” He also initiated the annual Agricultural Outlook Conference, which continues to this day.[4][5]

Between 1972 and 1975 Harris was a Deputy Secretary of the Department of Overseas Trade.[6] During this period, he led the working group that produced the report on The Principles of Rural Policy in Australia in 1974[7] which attracted attention from the academic and policy community at the time.[8]

In 1975 he joined the Australian National University as Professor of Resource Economics at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (CRES, later renamed the Fenner School of Environment and Society).[9] From 1982 to 1984, Harris was Director of CRES.[10]

In September 1984 Harris was appointed secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.[2] Harris oversaw the transition in administrative arrangements in which the Department of Foreign Affairs was reorganised and the expanded Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was established.[11] Harris retired as secretary of the department in 1988.[12]

After leaving the public service, Harris returned to academic life at the ANU, as Professor of International Relations, specialising in Northeast Asia, particularly China. He also worked on the reports on Ecologically sustainable development commissioned by the Hawke Government,[13] although these were not acted on after Paul Keating became Prime Minister of Australia.

Since his retirement in 1996, Harris has continued research on China's foreign policy[14] and global relationships as an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University.[6][15]

Awards

Harris was made a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1982. In the 1989 Birthday Honours Harris was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of distinguished public service.[16] In 2000, Harris was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.[4] In 2013, Harris was awarded an honorary doctorate from Murdoch University.[17]

Notes

1. CP 415: Emeritus Professor Stuart Francis HARRIS AO, National Archives of Australia, retrieved 31 March 2014
2. Hawke, Robert (3 September 1984). "Untitled" (Press release). Archived from the original on 22 January 2014.
3. http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2002060463/
4. The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (2001), 45:4, pp. 503-504
5. http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/outlook
6. Emeritus Professor Stuart Harris, Australian National University, archived from the original on 10 April 2011
7. https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2227240
8. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-8489.1974.tb00136.x
9. https://fennerschool.anu.edu.au
11. Harris 2008, p. 27.
12. Hawke, Robert (2 June 1988). "Untitled" (Press release). Archived from the original on 10 November 2013.
13. https://www.environment.gov.au/about-us/esd/publications/national-esd-strategy-part1
14. Stuart Harris, 2014, China's Foreign Policy, Cambridge UK: Polity Press, ISBN 978-0-7456-6246-6.
15. "Expert discusses likelihood of Aust, China free trade agreement", Lateline, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 22 October 2003, archived from the original on 28 April 2005
16. Search Australian Honours: HARRIS, Stuart Francis, Australian Government
17. https://www.murdoch.edu.au/news/articles/a-lifetime-of-public-service-honoured-by-murdoch

References and further reading

• Harris, Stuart (August 2008), "Chapter 3: Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, 1984–87, and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 1987–88" (PDF), in Wilson, Trevor; Cooke, Graham (eds.), Steady Hands Needed: Reflections on the role of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia 1979-1999, pp. 27–37, ISBN 9781921536137, archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2014