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ProfessorStuart HarrisAO FASSA
Stuart Harris at the Australian National University in Canberra
Professor, International Relations, Australian National University
In office 1989 – 1996 Emeritus Professor, 1996 - 2015
Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
In office 24 July 1987 – 3 July 1988
Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs
In office 3 September 1984 – 24 July 1987
Personal details
Born	Stuart Francis Harris (1931-03-14) 14 March 1931 (age 93) London, England
Nationality	Australian
Spouse	Pamela Harris (m. 1958)
Alma mater	University of Sydney Australian National University
Occupation	Public servant/academic

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

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 Sydney Branch of the Commonwealth Taxation Department and enrolled in evening classes in economics at the University of Sydney, eventually winning a government scholarship to complete his honours year, achieving his degree in 1956.

Career

After completing his honours degree, Harris transferred to Canberra, initially with the Taxation Department, before moving to the Department of Trade, where he began working closely with (later Sir) John Crawford, who facilitated his gaining a Public Service Fellowship at the Australian National University which enabled Harris to undertake a PhD.

In 1962 Harris joined the then Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAE), now the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), initially as the senior economist. Taking leave from the BAE in 1967-68, Harris worked with the Colombian government on land reform as part of the Harvard Advisory Service mission there. He returned to Australia in mid-1968 to take up the position of Director, BAE, 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.

Between 1972 and 1975 Harris was a Deputy Secretary of the Department of Overseas Trade. During his time in the public service, Harris contributed to a number of major government inquiries, such as The Committee of Economic Enquiry (Vernon Report, 1965). In 1974 he led the working group that produced the report on The Principles of Rural Policy in Australia in 1974 which attracted attention from the academic and policy community at the time. In the following year, Harris chaired the Task Force on Economic Policy, which published the report The Processes of Economic Policy Making in Australia (as part of the Royal Commission on Australian Government). The Task Force also included noted economists Ian Castles and Robert Gregory as members.

In 1975, Harris moved to the Australian National University where he was appointed to the Chair of Resource Economics in the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (CRES, later renamed the Fenner School of Environment and Society). He took on the position of Director of the Centre from 1982 to 1984.

Harris was appointed secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in September 1984 . In 1986, he published a major report on the role of the DFA in his Review of Australia's Overseas Representation. Harris then 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. Harris retired as secretary of the department in 1988.

After leaving the public service, Harris returned to academic life at the ANU, as Professor of International Relations, specialising in Northeast Asia, particularly China. In 1989, Harris was one of the three chairs appointed to lead the Ecologically Sustainable Development Process, commissioned by the Hawke Government. Based on extensive consultation the chairs presented 9 sectoral papers in 1991 and two further reports on intersectoral issues and greenhouse in 1992.

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

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. In 2000, Harris was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Harris was awarded an honorary D.Litt by Murdoch University in 2013.

Notes

1. ^ Hawke, Robert (3 September 1984). "Untitled" (Press release). Archived from the original on 22 January 2014.
2. Services, Archives and Records Management. "Useful Archive Links". alumniarchives.sydney.edu.au. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
3. Harvard Development Advisory Service on WorldCat link.
4. ^ The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (2001), 45:4, pp. 503-504
5. ABARES Outlook.
6. ^ Emeritus Professor Stuart Harris, Australian National University, archived from the original on 10 April 2011
7. Commonwealth of Australia, Report of the Committee of Economic Inquiry, Australian National Library.
8. Samuel, Peter (1965). "Policies for Economic Growth: The Vernon Report—A Review". The Australian Quarterly. 37 (4): 11–25. doi:10.2307/20634084. JSTOR 20634084.
9. Australia, Working Group on all Aspects of Rural Policy in Australia (Convenor, Stuart Harris), The Principles of Rural Policy in Australia: Discussion Paper, 1974, Australian National Library.
10. Campbell, Keith O. (1974). "Rural Policy in Australia — 1974 Style: A Review Article". Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics. 18 (3): 157–170. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8489.1974.tb00136.x. ISSN 0004-9395.
11. Australia, Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration, Task Force on Economic Policy, The processes of economic policy making in Australia: Report to the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration, 1975.
12. Australian National University, Fenner School of Environment & Society.
13. Australian National University, Department of International Relations, College of Asia & the Pacific, Professor Stuart Harris, Researchers profile.
14. Graeme Dobell, The Hard Part of Soft Power, The Strategist, 13 August 2018.
15. Harris 2008, p. 27.
16. Hawke, Robert (2 June 1988). "Untitled" (Press release). Archived from the original on 10 November 2013.
17. Trove, An Overview of the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, accessed 28 April 2021.
18. Stuart Harris, 2014, China's Foreign Policy, Cambridge UK: Polity Press, ISBN 978-0-7456-6246-6.
19. "Expert discusses likelihood of Aust, China free trade agreement", Lateline, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 22 October 2003, archived from the original on 28 April 2005
20. Search Australian Honours: HARRIS, Stuart Francis, Australian Government
21. Murdoch University, February 2013, 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, ANU E Press, pp. 27–37, ISBN 9781921536137, archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2014

• 1931 births
• Living people
• Australian National University alumni
• Australian public servants
• English emigrants to Australia
• Officers of the Order of Australia