Tony Harris worked in government from 1969 to 1999, mostly on micro-economic and budgetary matters in the federal treasury and finance portfolios of the Commonwealth or as NSW auditor-general.
After leaving the finance department where he was responsible for co-ordinating the spending side of the federal budget, he served as deputy secretary of the immigration department, presiding commissioner of the Industry Commission, head of the office of the Commonwealth Treasurer and a fiscal expert to the IMF.
He has degrees in Australian and US universities in arts, economics and business administration and was the Australian public sector accountant of the year in 1999. For several years he was a professorial fellow at the University of Wollongong and he continues as a columnist for The Australian Financial Review.