Deputy Secretary
Brooke Hartigan was appointed as Deputy Secretary Legal Group in July 2025.
Brooke performs the role of General Counsel for the Department of Home Affairs, leading the Department’s Legal Group in advising on a broad range of migration, citizenship, customs and national security matters. The Group also delivers privacy, Freedom of Information (FOI) and records functions.
Prior to joining the Department, Brooke was acting Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Criminal Justice Group and First Assistant Secretary of the Security and Counter-Terrorism Division within the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. In these roles she was responsible for leading policy and legislation development on a range of national security and criminal justice issues including counter-terrorism, international crime cooperation, Commonwealth parole and the high-risk terrorist offenders regime. Brooke has also held senior executive positions in the Department of Education, firstly as Minister-Counsellor (Education and Research) posted to the Australian Embassy in Beijing, and later as Branch Manager of the National Schools Reform Branch; and in the Department of Social Services, as Branch Manager on the National Redress Scheme.
Brooke started her public service career as a graduate in the then Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs before taking on various other roles in the public sector, including at the Attorney-General’s Department and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. She was also National Security Adviser in the Office of the Attorney-General and has worked in the UK’s financial regulator.
Brooke holds a Master of International and Comparative Law (LLM) from the University of Queensland, and a Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Arts from James Cook University. Brooke was admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory in 2003.
