Gareth Evans

Who is Gareth Evans?

Gareth John Evans AC, QC, is an Australian international policymaker and former politician. An academic lawyer and barrister by profession, he represented the Australian 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 Foreign Minister. 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.

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 and International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.