Geoff Forrester

Geoff Forrester is a Director and Shareholder of the Australian based Geoff Forrester Asia & Associates Pty Ltd (GFA&A), and President Commissioner and Shareholder of PT Geoff Forrester Indonesia (GFI), a 100% foreign owned Indonesian company.

Geoff has unparalleled experience and knowledge of Indonesia.

Geoff’s first two degrees, begun in 1964, are in Indonesian and Javanese studies. In the 1970s, he was Prime Minister Whitlam’s interpreter for all the discussions with President Soeharto. He was posted to Indonesia as Australian Embassy political analyst from 1971 to 1973. From 1975 to 1978 he was responsible for the East Timor issue in the Australian Delegation to the United Nations, New York.

From 1993 to 1996, as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Geoff assumed senior official responsibility for Australian Government interests in Indonesia. In 1993, he created the framework for the first Australia Indonesia Ministerial Forum, which brings together a wide range of Indonesian and Australian Ministers to discuss key current economic and political issues in the Australia Indonesia relationship. Geoff managed the first two meetings. The framework Geoff developed remains the pattern for the two yearly Forum meetings.

In 1994, Geoff managed the $A 6 million Australia Today Indonesia promotion in Indonesia, encompassing Australia’s political, business, cultural, legal and people-to-people links with Indonesia.

From 1999 to 2003, Geoff managed and was the driving force behind the Australian Government’s Technical Assistance Management Facility, a program of assistance to economic and legal governance reform in Indonesia. Stages I and II of TAMF delivered $A 18.6 million of assistance to the Government of Indonesia in critical areas of economic, legal and public sector reform.

Geoff has had extensive experience in Public Sector Reform.

Geoff’s first experience in promoting organisational reform was as head of International Organisations Branch in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) from 1986 to 1989. He initiated a vigorous Australian campaign for reform of the Security Council and of the finances of the UN and its subsidiary organisations. He prepared for submission by the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Australian Cabinet an annual evaluation of the value to Australia of its membership of all international agencies to which Australia belonged. This increased focus on value for money and the sustained Australian interest in the quality of management of international organisations achieved savings of several million dollars per year in Australia’s membership fees.

From 1989 to 1994, Geoff led a major program of reform in DFAT itself. This reform agenda, developed against significant internal opposition, modernised the human resources, financial management, internal audit and communications systems of a by then antiquated Department. New systems were developed to eliminate opportunities for fraud and corruption. Systems for evaluating DFAT work were introduced.

Computers were introduced across the Department. A global, secure communications system was established by 1994. DFAT occupied a new purpose built modern building in 1996.

Geoff developed with the Australian National University a range of degree courses in Foreign Affairs and Trade for developing in DFAT staff skills in economics, international relations and international law critical to DFAT’s effectiveness. The tuition was delivered on DFAT premises. The courses were open to new entrants, foreign diplomats, the staff of other Government agencies, and DFAT staff without tertiary qualifications but wanting to develop new skills relevant to core DFAT functions.

As the reforms were underway, a 1992/1993 Australian Senate enquiry concluded that the reform program had achieved significant improvements in the management and financial systems of DFAT.

This direct, extensive experience in Australian public sector reform guided Geoff’s approach to the design and implementation of TAMF programs of assistance in governance reform to Indonesia. In this period, TAMF worked with 16 Indonesian Government Ministries and agencies – four Directorate-Generals in the Ministry of Finance. TAMF assistance was crucial in achieving the following:

• Creation of Indonesia’s anti-money laundering agency (the PPATK), the building of its operating systems, and the tracking of terrorist funding after the Bali bombings.
• The strengthening of audit capacity in the Audit Board (BPK), including in the conduct of military audits
• Monitoring of the compliance of the State Banks with their performance contracts with the Government
• Development of a Financial Safety Net policy for the Government of Indonesia and the central bank, Bank Indonesia
• Development of proposals for a more effective Regional Autonomy Advisory Council, the senior body advising the President on the financing and effectiveness of regional government in Indonesia
• The drafting of new laws and regulations, in particular, new laws on State bonds, anti-money laundering and the public accountant and valuer professions.

Geoff has consistently demonstrated a high level of Organisational and Management Capacity. In addition to his achievements with TAMF and in public sector reform in DFAT and earlier in the UN system, Geoff in 1993 developed the concept of and staged the inaugural National Trade and Investment Outlook Conference (NTIOC) in Melbourne, Australia. He staged the next two NTIOCs in Melbourne in 1994 and 1995, making it Australia’s premier international business networking conference. Each NTIOC delivered an estimated $25 million in new business for Australia.

Education

Bachelor of Economics
Australian National University (ANU)
Awarded in 1988 by the ANU

Master of Arts (Asian Studies), ANU
Awarded in 1973 by the ANU for a thesis on 19th Century Javanese history.

Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies)
Awarded in 1969 by the Australian National University (ANU).
Majors in the Indonesian, Sanskrit and Javanese languages and South East Asian and Indian history.

Summary of Work Experience

Publications

• Policy Coordination in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade” in P. Weller, J. Foster and G. Davis, “Reforming the Public Service”, MacMillan Education Australia, 1993
• “Policy Advising Programs - The Impact of Audit and Evaluation”, Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration, No 73, September 1993
• “Peacekeeping at the Crossroads”, in “Peacekeeping: Challenges for the Future”, ed. Hugh Smith, Australian Defence Studies Centre, 1993
• “Some Aspects of Preventive Diplomacy” in “UN Peacekeeping at the Crossroads”, ed. Kevin Clements & Christine Wilson, ANU, 1994
• "The Northern Territory and its Role in the Region”, in “Budgeting for Statehood in the Northern Territory”, ed. Christine Fletcher and Cliff Walsh, Northern Australia Research Unit, 1997
• “Conclusion”, in “Government and Business Relations between Eastern Indonesia and the Northern Territory”, ed. Christine Fletcher, Northern Australia Research Unit, 1997
• “Towards March 1998, With Determination”, in “Indonesia’s Technological Challenge”, ed. Hal Hill and Thee Kian Wie, ANU & Institute of South East Asian Studies, 1998
• “Soeharto’s Krisis Moneter and What It Means for Australia”, Quadrant magazine, May 1998
• “Good Neighbourliness in the Post-Soeharto Era”, in “Bad Times, Good Friends Australia and East Asia in 1998”, ed. Christine Fletcher, Northern Australia Research Unit, 1998
• “The Fall of Soeharto”, ed. Geoff Forrester and R. J. May, Crawford House and Select Publishing, 1998 and 1999, translated into Bahasa Indonesia as “Jatuhnya Soeharto”, Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI), 1999
• “Accessing Essential Services: Reforming the Role of Government in Indonesia”, in Towards Asia's Sustainable Development: The Role of Social Protection”, OECD, 2001
• “Post-Soeharto Indonesia: Renewal or Chaos?”, ed Geoff Forrester, ANU & Institute of South East Asian Studies, 1999
• “Australia-Indonesia Relations: Facing the New Millennium”, paper for 22 April 1999 University of Indonesia Australian Studies Centre workshop, published also in the Jakarta Post