Gareth Evans (politician)

Gareth Evans
AC KC FASSA FAIIA
Evans at Chatham House in 2011
Chancellor of Australian National University
In office
1 January 2010 – 1 January 2020
Preceded byKim Beazley
Succeeded byJulie Bishop
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
In office
19 March 1996 – 19 October 1998
LeaderKim Beazley
Preceded byPeter Costello
Succeeded bySimon Crean
Deputy Leader of the Labor Party
In office
19 March 1996 – 19 October 1998
LeaderKim Beazley
Preceded byKim Beazley
Succeeded bySimon Crean
Leader of the Government in the Senate
In office
24 March 1993 – 11 March 1996
Prime MinisterPaul Keating
DeputyRobert Ray
Preceded byJohn Button
Succeeded byRobert Hill
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office
2 September 1988 – 11 March 1996
Prime MinisterBob Hawke
Paul Keating
Preceded byBill Hayden
Succeeded byAlexander Downer
Minister for Transport and Communications
In office
24 July 1987 – 2 September 1988
Prime MinisterBob Hawke
Preceded byPeter Morris
Succeeded byRalph Willis
Minister for Resources and Energy
In office
13 December 1984 – 24 July 1987
Prime MinisterBob Hawke
Preceded byPeter Walsh
Succeeded byJohn Kerin
Attorney-General of Australia
In office
11 March 1983 – 13 December 1984
Prime MinisterBob Hawke
Preceded byPeter Durack
Succeeded byLionel Bowen
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Holt
In office
2 March 1996 – 30 September 1999
Preceded byMichael Duffy
Succeeded byAnthony Byrne
Senator for Victoria
In office
1 July 1978 – 2 March 1996
Succeeded byStephen Conroy
Personal details
Born
Gareth John Evans

(1944-09-05) 5 September 1944 (age 80)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political partyLabor
SpouseMerran Evans
ChildrenCaitlin Evans
Eamon Evans
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
Magdalen College, Oxford
ProfessionAcademic, barrister
Websitegevans.org

Gareth John Evans (born 5 September 1944), is an Australian politician, international policymaker, academic, and barrister. He represented the Labor Party in the Senate and House of Representatives from 1978 to 1999, serving as a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating governments from 1983 to 1996 as Attorney-General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communications and most prominently, from 1988 to 1996, as Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was Leader of the Government in the Senate from 1993 to 1996, Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 1998, and remains one of the two longest-serving federal Cabinet Ministers in Labor Party history.[1]

After leaving politics, he was president and chief executive officer of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group from 2000 to 2009. On returning to Australia he was appointed in 2009 honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne. He has served on a number of major international commissions and panels, including as co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2000–01) and the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (2008–10). Evans has written extensively on international relations and legal, constitutional and political affairs, and has been internationally recognised for his contributions to the theory and practice of mass atrocity and conflict prevention, arms control and disarmament.

From 2010 to 2020, Evans was the Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was appointed an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the ANU in 2012. He currently is a member of the Board of Sponsors for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

  1. ^ Ralph Willis is the other. Of the others holding ministerial office at the beginning and end of the Hawke/Keating governments, Kim Beazley and Brian Howe were initially in the outer Ministry, not Cabinet, and Paul Keating retired for a time to the back bench.