Peter Harris (AO)

Peter Harris is Chairman of the Productivity Commission. Mr Harris previously served as Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy; the Victorian Government agencies responsible for Sustainability and the Environment; Primary Industries; and Public Transport.

Mr Harris has worked for the Ansett-Air New Zealand aviation group and as a consultant on transport policy. He has also worked in Canada on exchange with the Privy Council Office (1993-1994). His career with the government started in 1976 with the Department of Overseas Trade and included periods with the Treasury; Finance; the Prime Minister’s Department and Transport; he worked for two years in the Prime Minister’s Office on secondment from the Prime Minister’s Department as a member of then Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s personal staff.

In 2013, Mr Harris was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.

He has a degree in Economics from the University of Queensland (1975).