Gregory Andrews (born 1968) is the former Australian High Commissioner to Ghana and West Africa and former Threatened Species Commissioner.^[1]

Gregory Andrews is owner and founder of Lyrebird Dreaming Pty Ltd.^[2] He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Canberra’s Institute for Applied Ecology^[3] and the Deputy Chair of the Canberra Writers Festival.^[4] Gregory writes regularly for John Menadue's Policy journal Pearls and Irritations,^[5] for the Canberra Times^[6] and other outlets.

Early life and education

He was born in Sydney in 1968 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and is a Dharawal man.^[7]

Andrews holds a Master of Arts (Foreign Affairs and Trade) from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Economics majoring in Econometrics with First Class Honours from the University of Newcastle.^[1]

Diplomatic career

Andrews joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the 1990s.

Andrews served as Assistant Secretary, International Organisations Branch. He has previously served overseas as First Secretary, Australian Embassy, Beijing. From 2017 to 2019, Andrews was Australia's national focal point for the Responsibility to Protect and represented Australia in United Nations, bilateral and non-government negotiations on atrocity prevention.^[8][9]

In 2020 Andrews was appointed as Australia's High Commissioner to Ghana. Andrews was also accredited to Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Togo.

Andrews became known as a "Peoples' Ambassador in Ghana" based on his strong connection to local peoples and communities. He was frequently seen getting his hair cut at local barbers and buying bread from street side merchants.^[10][11] His appointment as a representative for the Australian Government in Ghana was reportedly marred with controversy based on his support for marginalised people such as so called accused witches and Ghana's LGBT community.^[12] The appointment had a requisite overseas posting in Ghana, which saw Andrews living and working in Ghana. Andrews reportedly attended and supported the opening of Ghana's first-ever Gay and Lesbian Community Safe Space in the capital city of Accra, in Late February 2021. While homosexuality wasn't illegal in Ghana, non-hetero-normative sex acts were, and Ghana's police and media subsequently conducted a raid on the same space, causing it to be shut down as a result.

Later, in May 2021, a local Ghana politician named Samuel Nartey George told local media that he would “beat” Australia’s representative if he continued to voice support for the decriminalisation on homosexuality. “I warned him that I’ll beat him in this town.” George said. When the interviewer challenged him on his statement George responded. “Why can’t I do that? If he decides not to behave like a diplomat, I will treat him like a non-diplomat.”

On 20 December 2021, it is reported that the Australian Government ended Andrews appointment to Ghana, and he was returned home.^[13][14]

Andrews also served as Australia's deputy chief climate negotiator to the United Nations.^[15]

Australian Public Service

In Australia Andrews has served as the Threatened Species Commissioner, Department of Environment and Energy; Senior Adviser, Office of the Minister for the Environment; Assistant Secretary, Department of Climate Change and Energy; CEO, Indigenous Community Volunteers; and Assistant Secretary, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

In the lead-up to the Northern Territory Intervention, Gregory Andrews was accused by journalist Chris Graham as having posed as an anonymous youth worker during a report on Lateline.^[16] At the time, Andrews was actually an Assistant Secretary in the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination (OIPC) and many of the claims made on camera were found to be fabricated.

Chris Graham claimed in the National Indigenous Times that Andrews claimed to have lived in the Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu and made several claims of child abuse occurring within the community. Graham said one noteworthy claim made by Andrews was that “Young people were hanging themselves off the church steeple on Sunday and their mothers were having to cut them down.”. Graham claimed that local police were contacted to verify this claim, and police subsequently confirmed at the time that no child had ever hung themselves from the Mutitjulu church, nor had a mother ever had to cut her child down.

It was later discovered that Andrews had never lived in Mutitjulu as he had claimed, but instead while working at Mutitjulu had lived in a one-bedroom apartment on the other side of Uluru near Ayers Rock tourist resort, 20kms away.^[17]

Andrews has consistently maintained that he spoke truthfully and that he was treated as a political football by all sides of politics.^[18] When the Labor Government who were in opposition at the time, learned that Andrews may not have been truthful in his reports, they summonsed Andrews to appear before the Senate. The Secretary of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs intervened, and Graham claimed that Andrews became the first bureaucrat in parliamentary history to avoid a Senate Estimates grilling on the grounds that he was “too stressed” to appear.^[19] Much of the false and misleading information about Andrews came from statements made by then NT Chief Minister Clare Martin and NT Treasurer Syd Stirling under the protection of Parliamentary Privilege. Andrews wrote to them, as well as Warren Snowdon outlining the misleading and unfactual information that they has disseminated about him and asking them to table his letter and correct the record. They never did.^[20]

Gregory Andrews released a statement in July 2006 challenging those attacking him him and the Lateline program to channel their energy into the protection of women and children rather than the vilification of those who have spoken out. ^[21]

Gregory Andrews gave similar evidence to that on Lateline to a coronial inquest in 2005. In his findings, the Northern Territory Coroner, Greg Kavanagh, found Mr Andrews work to be outstanding. ^[22]

An Independent Complaints Panel Review of the Lateline program found Mr Andrews to be a credible witness. ^[23]

The peak body representing Aboriginal women in the Northern Territory (the NPT Women’s Council) released a statement on the Lateline program advising that the Lateline witnesses “did not make up the stories” and we were “not liars or mad”. ^[24]

The Little Children are Sacred Report published by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2007 found there was "a significant problem" in Northern Territory communities in relation to sexual abuse of children. ^[25]

16 Day Climate Hunger Strike

On November 2, 2023, Andrews begun a hunger strike on the lawns of Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia protesting the lack of government action on climate change.^[26] He was demanding the Albanese Government to declare a climate emergency, and said he will not cease his strike until this happens.

Over the course of his hunger strike he was visited by many members of parliament, local councilors and senior public servants including Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh, Independent MPs Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps, Andrew Wilkie, Senators, David Pocock, former Representative to Australia of the Dalai Lama, Chope Paljor Tsering, Author, Michael Mobbs and many more.

During the hunger strike, Andrews reported that he only drank water with salt, and that he lost ten kilograms.

As Andrews was not allowed to camp on the lawns outside Parliament House, he left to go home each evening, and returned to Parliament House at approximately 06:30 local time each day.

On Friday 17 November 2023, Andrews was taken to hospital after a 16-day hunger strike on the lawns of Parliament House ending the longest hunger strike for climate action by a single person in Australia. His petition received over 4,500 signatures.^[27]

Andrews had planned to protest until at least December 13, 2023 in the hope Australia would ramp up its climate actions before the UN's COP 28 talks in Dubai.^[28]

References