Ted Evans remembered as a public servant who left his mark

Former federal Treasury secretary and Westpac chairman Ted Evans died on Sunday aged 79.

Ted Evans, the former head of Federal Treasury and chairman of Westpac has died aged 79.

Former federal Treasury secretary and Westpac chairman Ted Evans, who died on Sunday, has been remembered as a model public servant with a sharp wit who dedicated his life to improving the nation’s economy and safeguarding its prosperity.

Mr Evans, 79, played a critical role as a senior Treasury official advising the Hawke government and then treasurer Paul Keating on historic reforms that transformed the Australian economy and financial system in the 1980s.

He later served for a long time as Treasury secretary advising the Howard government before taking on leading roles in the private sector.

Mr Evans is recognised as a model public servant — in some circles as one of the most important federal public officials of the past half-century — who was committed to fiscal discipline, economic growth and who embodied the best of the Treasury as a department.

He had been battling cancer and was staying in a Canberra hospice when he died.

Former prime ministers, treasurers, bankers and journalists alike on Sunday paid tribute to Mr Evans and his enduring legacy.

Former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello, who reappointed Mr Evans as Treasury boss, said he was a “superb public servant” who saw it as his duty to serve governments of any persuasion “without fear or favour”.

“He has left an enduring economic legacy as well as a great legacy in the people that he promoted and supported who went on to do great things,” Mr Costello said.

“He had come from very humble circumstances. He started out as a linesman for the Postmaster General’s Department in Queensland and he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of where all the telecom wires in the state ran. And eventually he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of where all the levers of the Australian economy ran. He cultivated a whole generation of Treasury officers in the tradition, and while he was there the Treasury was at its absolute height.”

Mr Costello said Mr Evans was easygoing and friendly with a “very sharp mind”.

“He would cut into a discussion with a very sharp mind. He would lull you into a sense of ­security and then deliver a very sharp observation, which I liked, I found him to be a very stimulating guy.

“He will be much missed by those of us who care about Australia and its economy.”

Mr Evans studied at Ipswich High School in southeast Queensland and then trained as a technician, working at the Ipswich branch of the Postmaster-General’s Department.

He studied economics while working and graduated from the University of Queensland in 1969 with first-class honours in a bachelor of economics.

Mr Evans then joined the Treasury Department and moved to Canberra, holding various positions throughout the 1970s and 80s, including a stint as a representative to the OECD in Paris.

In 1984, he was promoted to one of the deputy secretary positions and later, between 1989 and 1993, he was posted as an executive director to the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

Mr Evans was appointed Treasury secretary in March 1993 and retired from the public service in April 2001. He then went on to chair Westpac through the 2008 global financial crisis and oversaw the takeover of St George. He was also a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia board.