Blair Comley

Blair Robert Comley is an economist. He is a former Secretary of the New South Wales Government Department of Premier and Cabinet, replaced by a new Secretary upon the election of premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Life and career Blair Comley was born in the late 1960s.

Comley joined the Department of the Treasury in 1994. For three years, he represented Australia on economic policy at the OECD. In 2008, Comley was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Department of Climate Change. In September 2013, after the Abbott government was sworn in, new Prime Minister Tony Abbott sacked Comley and two other departmental secretaries.

Comley was hired by PricewaterhouseCoopers in April 2014 as a Special Adviser in the Canberra Economics and Policy Team. By September 2014, he had been appointed head of the New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet. In November 2017, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian announced he would be replaced by a new Secretary.

He was appointed Secretary of the Department of Health and Aged Care in July 2023.

Awards Comley was awarded a Public Service Medal in January 2012 for outstanding public service in the development of public policy, particularly in the areas of carbon pricing and emissions trading, tax policy design and debt management.