Stuart Harris (public servant)

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.

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]

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]