Mr James Batley
High Commissioner to Fiji
Biography
Mr Batley is a career foreign service officer who joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1984. He was most recently Special Coordinator to Solomon Islands, a position he held from August 2004 until November 2006.
In Australia, Mr Batley served in the South Pacific Bilateral Section (1988-89), Director, Papua New Guinea Section (1994) and, as Assistant Secretary, Mainland South-East Asia and South Asia Branch (2002-2004).
Overseas, Mr Batley has served as Third Secretary, Australian High Commission, Port Vila (1985-88), First Secretary, Australian High Commission, Port Moresby (1990-93), Counsellor, Australian Embassy, Jakarta (1995-97) and as High Commissioner to Solomon Islands (1997-99), concurrently serving as Deputy Leader of the Truce Monitoring Group, Bougainville and Chief Negotiator of the Peace Monitoring Group, Bougainville. From 1999-2002 Mr Batley served as Australia’s senior diplomatic representative in Dili, East Timor, and was appointed Australia’s first Ambassador to East Timor at independence in May 2002.
Mr Batley was born in Sydney in 1958 and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from Sydney University.