Peter Hamilton Bailey

Peter Hamilton Bailey (3 September 1927 – 7 November 2021) was a former Australian public servant and academic. He served as an advisor to seven Australian prime ministers, and later became a professor in human rights law at the Australian National University (ANU).

Early life Bailey was born in Melbourne to Editha (née Donnison) and Kenneth Bailey. His father served as Solicitor-General of Australia. Bailey attended Carey Baptist Grammar School and Wesley College, and then completed a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Melbourne. He won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1949, emulating his father who had been a Rhodes Scholar in 1918. They both attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford. After Oxford, Bailey returned to Australia to complete a Master of Laws degree at Canberra University College.

Public service Bailey had entered the Commonwealth Public Service in 1946, as an assistant to George Knowles, Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department. He joined the Department in Treasury in 1962, and then the Prime Minister's Department in 1965. Under Holt, Bailey was given the title of "first assistant secretary" and was in charge of the prime minister's private office. In December 1967, he was given the task of informing Zara Holt of her husband's disappearance.

In 1972, Bailey became deputy secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in 1972, under John Bunting. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1972 Queen's Birthday Honours. He served on the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration from 1974 to 1976, under the chairmanship of H. C. Coombs. During the Fraser government, Bailey was tasked with setting up the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). He became an adjunct professor in 1999. Bailey retired from ANU at the end of 2016, aged 89.