The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Heroic soldier John Frewen answered call to arms

In taking on the unenviable task of getting Australia’s vaccine rollout back on track, General Frewen stayed above the politics and got the vaccines into Australians’ arms with world class efficiency.

Lieutenant General John Frewen. Picture: Gary Ramage

Lieutenant General John James Frewen already had a lifetime of extraordinary service to the Australian and global community under his belt when he took on the unenviable task of getting the nation’s troubled vaccine rollout back on track in June 2021.

Despite the take-up of the ­AstraZeneca jab being thwarted by the release of equivocal advice from ATAGI in response to alarmism about rare side effects – and the federal government’s failure to secure sufficient supplies of Pfizer until months after they were needed – General Frewen stayed above the politics and got the vaccines into Australians’ arms with world class efficiency.

Thanks to the work of General Frewen and his team, Australia now has one of the highest Covid vaccination rates in the world.

For providing a steady pair of hands even the most critical premiers could not fault, he has been nominated for The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

The Chief of Joint Capabilities when not seconded to his current role as Co-ordinator General of the National Covid Vaccine task force, General Frewen’s defence force career began when he joined the Royal Military College Duntroon and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Infantry Corps in 1986.

He has deployed on operations to Rwanda and Afghanistan, and as a lieutenant colonel, commanded the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment in 2003 and 2004, serving as initial international force commander for the Solomon Islands crisis.

For his service in that role, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2004 for “exceptional performance”.

General Frewen went on to command the 1st Brigade from 2012 to 2014, and Joint Task Force 633, battling Islamic State in the Middle East from 2017 to 2018.

This saw him awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in 2019 for “distinguished command and leadership”.

In March 2018, he was appointed Principal Deputy Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate, before his secondment to lead the Australian Defence Organisation Covid-19 task force in 2020.

He was appointed to succeed Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead as Chief of Joint Capabilities in September 2021, but will remain in his vaccination role for now.

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the form above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 21.