Former Australian Ambassador to China and Japan Jan Adams will head the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in a transformation of senior civil servants.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appointed four new departmental secretaries on Wednesday, after putting former vice-chancellor of Glyn Davis University at the head of his own department shortly after the election.
The new head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jan Adams, has been Australia’s ambassador to China and Japan. Credit: Dan Sandoval
Adams replaces Kathryn Campbell, who moved to DFAT last July from the Department of Social Services. Labor had criticized his appointment because he oversaw the robotic debt program that was later found in court to be illegal.
In a statement, Albanese thanked Campbell for his work and said he would hold a senior position in the Defense portfolio in an AUKUS-related role.
Former Victorian NSW civil servant Jim Betts will head the Department of Infrastructure, Transportation, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. He previously headed the NSW Planning Department and the Victoria Transportation Department. Former NSW Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian had appointed Betts head of the Premier and Cabinet Department, but the new leader Dominic Perrottet removed him before he took office.
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Albanese, a longtime Rudd-Gillard-era infrastructure minister, said Betts would provide “a deep understanding of the priority challenges facing governments in this space” at the federal level, where he will replace Simon Atkinson. .
Secretary of the Treasury Rosemary Huxtable will retire in August after six years at the helm of the department and will be replaced by senior Treasury official Jenny Wilkinson. He has worked in various utilities, including climate change, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, and the Reserve Bank.
Former Fair Work advocate Natalie James will take on the new Department of Employment and Labor Relations, while David Fredericks will move from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources to head the newly created Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.