Ron Brown was the State Director of Social Security in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, South Australia and New South Wales between 1977 and 1985, and then Executive Director at the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) between 1985 and 1987.[1][2]
Brown left the Australian Public Service shortly after the 1990 federal election,[4] thought to have been sacked by Prime Minister Bob Hawke, perhaps due to his not being sufficiently responsive to certain ethnic communities, or perhaps as an effort to remove Brown's Deputy Secretary, Tony Harris.[5][6]
References
^Ingram, David (21 April 2011), Can this man save SBS?, archived from the original on 16 January 2013, Although the first managing director, R.E. Fowell, came from commercial radio, his successor Ron Brown was a professional public servant — but both in their way suited the times. Between Fowell's appointment in 1978 and Ron Brown's departure in 1987, SBS functioned as a start-up public service broadcaster, beginning with a multilingual radio service then adding a fledgling television station.
^Hawke, Robert (21 May 1987). "Untitled" (Press release). Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Mr Ron Brown has today been appointed Secretary, Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs
^Betts, Katharine (May 2003), "Immigration policy under the Howard Government", Australian Journal of Social Issues, 38 (2): 173, doi:10.1002/j.1839-4655.2003.tb01141.x, hdl:1959.3/954, For example, just after the 1990 election when Ray had been moved to Defence and a new Minister had not yet been appointed, Hawke sacked the Departmental Secretary, Ron Brown. Brown was a competent administrator who enjoyed Ray's full support. Hawke intervened, possibly because Brown was not sufficiently responsive to the demands of ethnic communities (Hartcher, 1991b; Jupp, 1993: 216), or possibly because he wanted to remove Brown's deputy, Tony Harris, a public servant also committed to Ray's control agenda (Burgess, 1993). After Brown was gone, Gerry Hand was given the portfolio.
