A former senior public servant is the first woman to be appointed to lead Australia’s foreign spy agency. Kerri Hartland will become the director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) in February.

A former senior public servant who most recently was overseeing the reform of Parliament’s workplace culture has been named the new head of Australia’s foreign spy agency.

Kerri Hartland will become the first female director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) in February, in the Albanese government’s first appointment of a chief to one of the major intelligence services.

Ms Hartland, who replaces Paul Symon, takes the post at a time when the government has warned Australia confronts the most challenging security outlook since World War II, with an increasingly assertive China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatening the rules-based world order.

“With an increasingly complex geostrategic landscape, intelligence will continue to be critical to securing Australia’s safety, prosperity and sovereignty,” Ms Hartland said.

“To lead an organisation that so significantly contributes to Australia’s national security is a true privilege.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Ms Hartland would bring “excellent strategic, operational and people leadership” to the role. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton backed the appointment.

As well as being the first woman to run ASIS, Ms Hartland comes to the role without the traditional military or Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade pedigree of her predecessors, although she does have security experience as deputy director-general of domestic spy agency ASIO between 2011 and 2017.

A one-time journalist, including in the Canberra press gallery, Ms Hartland worked in multiple government departments and was secretary of the Department of Employment, Small and Family Business between 2017 and 2020.

For the past two years, she worked as a consultant, including as a co-ordinator for the Business Council of Australia’s bushfire recovery efforts.

She was appointed earlier this year as chairwoman of the Parliamentary Leadership Taskforce, set up to oversee the implementation of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ report into the culture and safety of parliamentary workplaces.