Blair
Comley

Blair joined Port Jackson Partners in 2018 as a Director. Blair is an economist with over 20 years of experience in public policy advice and leadership at both Commonwealth and State levels.

Blair is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost senior public servants and has worked on a range of issues including tax policy, competition policy, environment policy and macroeconomic policy. In the Commonwealth Government, Blair was the Secretary of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and the Secretary of the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. Early in his career, Blair worked in the Department of Treasury, where he was a key member of the team that designed the GST, including transitional agreements. Blair also represented Australia on economic policy at the OECD and led the review of the Commonwealth Government Securities Market, which considered the likely market structure in the absence of government debt.

Blair was most recently the Secretary of the New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet, the State’s most senior public servant. In this role, Blair was responsible for Commonwealth-State negotiations and was a member of the COAG Senior Officials group. Blair also has extensive Commonwealth-State negotiation experience, including being Chair of the Senior Officials Group on Energy.

Blair was awarded a Public Service Medal in the 2012 Australia Day Honours in recognition of his outstanding contribution to public policy.

Education

Blair has a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours and a Master of Economics from Monash University, and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies from ANU.