From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stephen Brady is an Australian career diplomat. Since September 2008 he has been the Official Secretary to the Governor-General of Australia, Ms Quentin Bryce.

Stephen Brady first became a diplomat in 1982. He has served as Ambassador to Sweden with non-resident accreditation as Ambassador to Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. He made headlines as Australia’s first openly gay ambassador when he formally presented his partner Peter Stephens to Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 1999.^[1] He was Australia's Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. Until March 2008 he served as Ambassador to the Netherlands.

On two occasions he was seconded from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to work in then Prime Minister John Howard's office as Senior Adviser (Government). He has also worked in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet where from 1991-1996 he was responsible for the official Guest of Government program. Immediately prior to his appointment as Official Secretary, he was Chief of Protocol in DFAT.

He is a long-time friend of the current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, himself a former diplomat, and Brady's partner, Peter Stephens, is an adviser to Rudd.

On 5 September 2008 Stephen Brady replaced Malcolm Hazell as Official Secretary to the new Governor-General of Australia, Quentin Bryce. Mr Hazell had served Ms Bryce's two predecessors, Major General Michael Jeffery and Archbishop Peter Hollingworth, and is described as "resolutely non-partisan" and his service was also described by PM Rudd as "exemplary". Mr Rudd defended Ms Bryce's decision as an incoming governor-general's right to appoint a new official secretary.^[2][3]

Honours

On 5 June 2009, Brady was invested by the Ambassador of The Netherlands as a Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Orange-Nassau.^[4] Brady received the highest honour out of 3000 handed out in The Netherlands.

References