Senior Executive Service
Band 1
The Department of Home Affairs has promoted Michael Burvill assistant secretary for clinical operations.
Sharna Bucher is now a national manager at Services Australia.
The next chief financial officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics is Geraldine Quinane.
Band 2
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has two new first assistant secretaries — Andrew McDonald and Thomas Black.
NRF names first chief investment officer
Mary Manning has been appointed the inaugural chief investment officer of the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF).
She will oversee investment strategy and portfolio management for the $15 billion fund, which was set up to diversify Australian industry and economy.
Manning is an experienced portfolio manager with Ellerston Capital and Aphinity Investment Management. She has previously held senior positions at Oaktree Capital and Soros Funds Management.
She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney and has completed additional courses at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership.
She is a member of 100 Women in Finance and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
Five more years for Burgess
Mike Burgess has been given another five years as director-general of national intelligence.
Burgess replaced Duncan Lewis as head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 2019 after a career in defence, cyber security and intelligence.
He joined the Department of Defence in 1995 as an electronic engineer, soon moving to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) where he would stay for 18 years.
After a stint as a consultant, he returned to ASD as director-general in 2017.
Burgess was made a member of the Order of Australia this year for service to public administration – particularly national security and intelligence.
Former senator joins Old Parliament House board
Sue Knowles has been named a part-time member of the Old Parliament House board for a three-year term.
Knowles served as a Liberal senator for Western Australia from 1984 to 2005. During this time, she held a range of roles including deputy opposition whip in the Senate (1987-1993), shadow minister for multicultural affairs (1993-1994) and temporary chair of committees (1996-2005).
Knowles has previously served on a range of boards and committees, including as convenor of the Classification Board (2017-2022), member of the Classification Review Board (2015-2017), non-executive chair of Perihelion Health (2008-2011) and member of the Arthritis Foundation Board (2002-2005).
Rural GP and health educator gets top job
Australia’s next rural health commissioner will be Jenny May.
She will hold the position from September 2 until June 2026, replacing outgoing commissioner Ruth Stewart.
May worked as a GP for more than 35 years in rural, regional and remote Australia and Canada.
She has over 25 years of experience as a health educator and is currently director of the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health in Tamworth.
May was awarded an Order of Australia in 2016 for significant service to community health in rural and regional Australia as a general practitioner, to professional medical groups and education.
South Australian First Nations Voice holds first meeting
The South Australian First Nations Voice to Parliament met for the first time last week, electing leadership of the inaugural body.
The June 13 meeting established Tahlia Wanganeen and Leeroy Bilney as presiding members of the 12-member advisory council.
Wanganeen was elected to the Central region. She is a Narungga, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri woman, currently serving as chair of the South Australian NAIDOC committee.
Bilney was elected to the West and West Coast regions. He is a Marlinyu Ghoorlie, Wirangu, Kokatha, Mirning, Noongar and Barngala man and aspiring leader from the Ceduna region.
Central will have additional representation from Douglas Clinch, and Cecelia Cox will appear for the West and West Coast region.
Melissa Thompson and Mark Campbell will represent the Far North.
Candace Champion and Rob Singleton will represent the Flinders and Upper North.
Danni Smith and Rob Wright will represent the Riverland and South East.
Joy Makepeace and Raymond Wanganeen will represent the Yorke and Mid-North.
Goodwin resigns from NSW Audit Office
Deputy auditor-general Ian Goodwin has said farewell to the Audit Office of NSW.
Goodwin has been deputy auditor-general since 2017. Prior to this, he served as group executive director of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) from 2004 to 2017.
His previous roles include with Treasury and Finance at the International Monetary Fund, as a senior analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia and auditing and management roles with PwC and EY.
Goodwin has been an Australian Army reserve officer since 2009, and has won a number of awards including a silver commendation and Sir Blamey Memorial Award for his training and work with the reserves. In 2015, he was awarded an Australia Day Medallion for his work with the ANAO.
He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and has received additional training at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and Governance Institute of Australia.
Claudia Migotto will act as deputy auditor-general until a replacement is found.
Migotto has over 20 years’ experience across Commonwealth and NSW government agencies in policy and program development, implementation and independent review. She joined the Audit Office in February 2016. She commenced as assistant auditor-general for performance audit in August 2017.
She will be a panellist at The Mandarin‘s Rebuilding Public Sector Trust and Integrity Sydney event next Tuesday.
Fels joins Centre for Public Integrity
The Centre of Public Integrity has named Alan Fels a new board member. Fels was the inaugural ACCC chair, serving from 1995-2003.
Since then, he has worked as a professor of law and economics at Melbourne and Monash universities, and as foundation dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).
Fels was made an officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for service to competition policy.
Town planner joins Environmental Protection Authority
The Western Australian government has appointed Jane Bennett as a member of the Environmental Protection Authority for a three-year term.
She joins Lee McIntosh, Fiona Haslam McKenzie, Darren Walsh and Hamish Beck on the independent authority’s board.
Bennett is the owner and managing director of CLE Town Planning + Design and an Urban Development Institute of Australia councillor.
She sits on the board of the WA Planning Commission and Development WA.
Leading Western Australian mandarin retires
Western Australia’s director-general of Training and Workforce Development Karen Ho has announced her retirement after 35 years of public service.
Appointed director-general of the department in December 2021, Ho spent 14 years as director of service delivery before becoming director-general.
Prior to this, she acted as director of policy and Aboriginal services in the Department of the Attorney General and director of policy and review in the Department of Education and Training.
Ho graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Science and completed a Graduate Certificate in Management from Curtin University.
Inquiry into misuse of personal information
New Zealand’s acting public service commissioner Heather Baggott has announced an inquiry into the misuse of personal information gathered by government.
It is alleged personal information provided to government agencies as part of Census 2023 and for COVID-19 vaccination purposes was misused by third-party service providers during last year’s election.
Michael Heron and Pania Gray have been picked to lead the inquiry.
Heron is a king’s counsel and former crown prosecutor. He was formerly New Zealand’s solicitor general and CEO of the Crown Law Office. Before that, he was a partner at law firms Russell McVeagh and Meredith Connell.
In 2020, he led an investigation into the breach of sensitive personal information involving COVID-19 active cases.
Gray recently completed a review for the Public Service Commission into Te Puni Kōkiri’s recruitment processes. She is a professional director and former senior public servant who led many inquiries while working at the Office of the Auditor-General.
She is managing director of Kororā Consulting and holds positions on a number of government and private boards.
Judicial appointments in NSW
Belinda Rigg and Michael Allen are the NSW’s newest judicial appointments.
Rigg will join the state’s Supreme Court and Allen has been named chief magistrate of the Local Court.
Allen has almost 40 years’ judicial experience, including as deputy chief magistrate and a District Court judge. He will be sworn in on July 8.
Rigg was appointed senior counsel in 2014 and has been the NSW senior public defender for five years. In this role, she led a team of 29 public defenders located around the state to ensure their work is best serving Legal Aid NSW and the Aboriginal Legal Service. She will be sworn in on July 24.