Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to pay my respects and express my deep sadness at the passing of Allan Gyngell AO. Allan was one of Australia's finest foreign policy minds, as you would know, Deputy Speaker Wilkie; and one of the finest practitioners of foreign policy and international affairs that this country has seen. He served Australia at the highest levels and in so many senior roles; I can't name all of them. He was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2009 for his services to international relations.

As some of you may know, he served as international adviser to Prime Minister Paul Keating in the early 1990s. He was a public servant in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as a first assistant secretary of the international branch in the early 1990s. He began his foreign policy career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He served as a diplomat in Rangoon, in Singapore in the 1970s and in Washington in the early 1980s. As you would know, Deputy Speaker, he was a member of that rather famous cohort, the class of '69—so many accomplished Australians came out of that year.

More recently, later in his life, Allan was the national president of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and he also served as the director of ONA. Deputy Speaker, you would know the great work Allan did there, having yourself served in that organisation.

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