Chris Higgins (Australian public servant)

Chris Higgins
Dr; Chris Higgins
Secretary of the Department of the Treasury
	In office; 19 September 1989 – 6 December 1990
Personal details
Born	Christopher Ian Higgins; 3 April 1943; Murwillumbah, New South Wales
Died	6 December 1990 (aged 47); Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Nationality	Australian
Spouse(s)	Paula Abigail Gomberg; (m. 1966–1990; his death)
Alma mater	Australian National University; University of Pennsylvania
Occupation	Public servant

Dr Christopher Ian Higgins (3 April 1943 – 6 December 1990) was a senior Australian public servant and economist. He was Secretary of the Department of the Treasury from September 1989 until his death.

Life and career

Chris Higgins was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales on 3 April 1943.[1] He attended Ballina High School.[2]

In 1960, Higgins came to Canberra as a Commonwealth Bureau of Statistics Cadet.[3] He graduated in 1964 from the Canberra University College (now known as the Australian National University) with a Bachelor of Economics with first class honours in economics and statistics.[3] He then won a postgraduate scholarship to study for his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania under supervisor Lawrence Klein.[3]

Between 1975 and 1989, Higgins was a senior executive officer in the Department of the Treasury, including as a deputy secretary from 1984.[4] He was appointed Secretary of the department in September 1989.[4]

Higgins died in Bruce, Australian Capital Territory from heart failure on 6 December 1990, aged 47, having just won a 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) footrace. (Paul Keating by Troy Bramston p354 records that Chris Higgins had a heart condition and was advised to not run marathons. On the evening of 6 December he attended a veterans athletics meeting at the AIS. He first ran a 400m then a 3000m race in 12min 8sec coming in 12th place, immediately succumbing to heart attack afterward.[3]

The Chris Higgins Prize given for outstanding graduate study in Economics at the Australian National University is named for him.

References

Keating, Michael, "Higgins, Christopher Ian (Chris) (1943–1990)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 23 April 2014
Nethercote, J.R. (7 June 2011). "The top of Treasury's talented table" (PDF). The Canberra Times. p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2014.
Stone, John, Dr Christopher Higgins, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, archived from the original on 2 March 2014
Hawke, Robert (5 July 1989). "Untitled" (Press release). Archived from the original on 23 April 2014.

Government offices
Preceded by Bernie Fraser	Secretary of the Department of the Treasury 1989 – 1990	Succeeded by Tony Cole

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[Keating-1] Keating, Michael, "Higgins, Christopher Ian (Chris) (1943–1990)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 23 April 2014

[2] Nethercote, J.R. (7 June 2011). "The top of Treasury's talented table" (PDF). The Canberra Times. p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2014.

[Stone-3] Stone, John, Dr Christopher Higgins, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, archived from the original on 2 March 2014

[Hawke-4] Hawke, Robert (5 July 1989). "Untitled" (Press release). Archived from the original on 23 April 2014.