Peter Henderson, AC

The major international event over this period was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Australian foreign policy was affected not only because of the debate over sanctions leading up to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but also because of general concerns about expanding Soviet activities in Australia’s nearby regions. In Asia, Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia in 1979 and the flow-on from China’s 1978 ‘open door’ policy represented different challenges and Australia had varying success as it adjusted its policies towards Japan (embarking on its ‘resources diplomacy’) and Indonesia (which was hyper-sensitive about internal stability).

Before taking up his appointment as secretary of the Department, Peter Henderson had a distinguished diplomatic career in Australia and overseas. But it was as a very experienced manager in the department that he had made his mark and he was always considered to be a prime candidate for the secretaryship. Writing about his appointment, one authoritative commentator noted that he ‘brought to his task a capacity for hard work, considerable experience of in-house administration and a warm, sensitive, even democratic personality’.^[1] These qualities were needed as the Department coped with internal morale problems, caused partly by budget cuts that affected it more than other departments, and increased challenges to its professionalism.

These years were also notable for the beginning of new dynamics affecting Australian foreign policy-making processes in Canberra. On the one hand, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser continued to be an activist in the field of diplomacy, often demonstrating a distinctive and innovative approach, and the Office of National Assessments was set up to report directly to him which, to some extent, diminished the role of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Second, several outside reports on Australia’s international relations had been commissioned by the Australian Government around this time implying some loss of confidence in traditional policy-making processes. These included the report on Australia’s Relations with the Third World, by Professor Owen Harries (1980) and the Report on Australia’s Relations with Japan by Baillieu Myer (1978). Thirdly, the Australian parliament displayed greater interest in Australia’s international relationships, producing several reports from the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (such as its 1980 report on Australia’s Relations with ASEAN) whose recommendations tended to go beyond current government policies. Finally, after the Freedom of Information Act was enacted in 1982, Australian journalists were emboldened to write more critically about foreign policy. These were challenging times.

Peter Henderson published his 1986 autobiography Privilege and Pleasure (Methuen Haynes, 1986).