Ronald George "Ron" Harvey, (born 9 June 1934) is a former senior Australian public servant and sport administrator. He was the third director of the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

, serving in the role from 1987 until 1989.

Early life

Harvey was born on 9 June 1934 in the Perth suburb of Subiaco and attended Perth Boys High School. He left school at the age of fourteen.

Sporting career

Harvey moved to Canberra in 1960 and became involved in playing, coaching and administrative roles in basketball. In 1967, he played a major role in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

breaking away from

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basketball. In 1979, he was involved with the establishment of the

Canberra Cannons The Canberra Cannons are a defunct professional men's basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). They went into financial administration in 2003 and were relocated to Newcastle, where they became the Hunter ...

basketball team and between 1981 and 1986 acted as the club's chairman and general manager. He was the National Basketball League(NBL) chairman from 1983 to 1987. He left this position in 1987, when appointed the third director of the

. His time at the AIS was challenging on two fronts, due to the merger of the AIS with the

Australian Sports Commission The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as S ...

with the latter organisation taking responsibility for

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

administration of sport. Shortly after his arrival at the AIS, there was a

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

inquiry into drugs in sport which examined allegations against AIS staff and athletes. After leaving the Australian Sports Commission as executive director in 1989, he became chief executive officer of the Gold Goast Cougars NBL team until 1991. In 1993, he was appointed a member of the

Australian Olympic Committee The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) is the National Olympic Committee responsible for developing, promoting, and protecting the Olympic Movement in Australia. The AOC has the exclusive responsibility for the representation of Australia at ...

's board and was vice president from 2001 to 2013. In 1997, he was President of

Basketball Australia Basketball Australia (BA), officially registered as BA Limited, is the governing body for basketball in Australia. Established in 1939, BA is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for overseeing basketball at all levels in Australia. B ...

. From 2004 to 2007, he was a director of

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

. He organised the

2008 Beijing Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

torch relay leg in Australia. In 2009, he was the first Australian to be awarded the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

Pierre de Coubertin medal The Pierre de Coubertin Medal is a special decoration awarded by the International Olympic Committee that "pays tribute to institutions with a pedagogical and educational role and to people who, through their research and the creation of intell ...

in recognition to his contribution to the promotion of the Olympic spirit. In receiving the award Harvey commented "I have enjoyed every minute of my involvement. It has been a fantastic continuing journey. The athletes make you proud to be an Australian and make all your efforts worthwhile." Also in 2009, he was appointed one of the chief envoys of Australia's FIFA 2018–2022 World Cup bid.

Public service career

Harvey started his

Australian Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the G ...

career as a junior clerk in the

Department of the Army The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the United States Department of Defense. The DA is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is organized. It is led ...

at Swan Barracks in Perth. His notable public service appointments included Senior Private Secretary to Minister for Capital Territories (1976–1978), Assistant Commissioner within the Public Service Board (1978–81), Commonwealth Director for the Royal Visit by the HM

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II (1926–2022; ), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms * Queen B ...

in 1981, Principal Private Secretary to the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, Hon.

Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and is the fourth List of ...

from 1982 to 1983, executive director for the National Tax Summit in 1985, director of the

from 1987 to 1989, Administrator

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and

Cocos (Keeling) Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (; ), are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and rel ...

from 1997 to 1998 and Australian consul general in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

from 2001 to 2004. Harvey noted that the highlight of his public service career was working as private secretary to Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who he described as a "great prime minister and very challenging to work for".

Recognition

* 1981 – Commander of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the m ...

for director of Ceremonial for 1981 Royal Visit * 1999 – Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

(AM) for services to the promotion of basketball * 2000 –

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, off ...

* 2001 –

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...

* 2003 – National Service Medal * 2009 – Pierre de Coubertin Medal * 2013 – Life Membership

* 2016 –

Australian Basketball Hall of Fame The Australian Basketball Hall of Fame was instituted by the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1998 as the ''NBL Hall of Fame'' as part of their 20th season celebrations. The NBL initiated the Hall of Fame to recognise the outstanding players ...

. * 2024 - ACT Sport Hall of Fame Associate Member * Australian Defence Medal * Life Member of

References

External links

Ron Harvey interviewed by Mick Fogarty in the Sport oral history project, National Library of Australia, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Ronald 1934 births Australian Institute of Sport administrators Australian Olympic Committee administrators Australian sports executives and administrators Cocos (Keeling) Islands administrators Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Consuls-general for Australia in Chicago Living people Members of the Order of Australia People from Perth, Western Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Recipients of the Pierre de Coubertin medal