C.A.S. Hawker Scholars
2002
Mr Wayne Harley
Hawker Scholar: 2002
Degree: Post-Graduate Diploma in Strategic Studies
Institution: Australian National University & in residence at Burgmann College
Goal: To contribute to the future of Australia's strategic alliances.
By any measure Wayne Harley has had an adventurous and interesting professional life. He commenced his Bachelor of Arts in English at Curtin University in Perth in the 70's. He completed it last year and has since been offered Honours. Between starting and completing his degree, Wayne spent 22 years at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
During that period, Wayne has worked in a number of areas for the National Broadcaster. Many of the images of war, devastation, drought and political unrest around the world have been filmed and or produced by Wayne and delivered in programs like Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent, the 7.30 Report and the evening ABC TV news bulletin.
He has worked in 65 countries around the world and his passport is well used and tells a story of it's own.
His work with Foreign Correspondent took him to many places including India, Eritera, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, the Middle East, PNG and Bouganville.
He's reported on the end of apartheid in South Africa, the Hong Kong hand over, the Kuwait Royal Family and Turkey/Syria relations, infanticide in India, mine clearing in Cambodia and the eradication of the poppy fields in Northern Pakistan.
He has won a Logie Award for Current Affairs and has also won Australian's highest prize for journalism, the Walkley and has been highly commended twice. He has also been recognised in the prestigious New York Film and Television Awards on three occasions.
Politics and international relations have always been an important part of his life. He's a person who has persued an interest in international relations, perhaps even consumed by it for much of his life. He has had many close calls on the road perhaps none more frightening than in Afghanistan where he had to stare down a Talaban soldier with an automatic rifle aimed at his head with the crowd encouraging the soldier to shoot. At the critical moment the rifle jammed - and Wayne lived to tell the tale.
One of his final positions with the national broadcaster last year was Executive Producer of Foreign Correspondent.
Wayne is enrolled in a Post-Graduate Diploma in Strategic Studies at the Australian National University and is in residence at Burgmann College. He brings to the Hawker Scholarship a wealth of experience, depth of knowledge and personal commitment to international affairs.