High Speed Rail Authority board appointments sit under a three-year cap
In Australia, the government announced two High Speed Rail Authority board appointments on 10 September, filling vacant member roles with Professor Eva Hanly and Christopher Rayner.
According to the 10 September ministerial announcement, Hanly’s appointment runs for three years and Rayner’s for two. The appointments followed an open competitive process to find candidates with suitable skills and experience. The legal requirements for board appointments come from the authority’s founding statute.
Why the two seats had to be advertised
A board appointment has to pass a two-part test under the High Speed Rail Authority Act 2022. First, the minister must be satisfied that the candidate holds suitable qualifications, knowledge, skills or experience. Second, the choice has to come from a merit-based process that included public advertising of the role.
However, that second condition carries an exception. It does not apply to the reappointment of someone who remains a board member immediately before the new term starts. The Act therefore treated the two 2026 rounds differently. The September selections followed an open competitive process, while section 16(6) exempted the June reappointments from that statutory requirement.
| Condition | Section | New non-chair member | Non-chair member reappointed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minister satisfied on qualifications, knowledge, skills or experience | 16(4)(a) | Applies | Applies |
| Selection through a merit-based process | 16(4)(b)(i) | Applies | Not required under section 16(6) |
| Public advertising of the position | 16(4)(b)(ii) | Applies | Not required under section 16(6) |
| Ceiling of three years on one term | 17 | Applies | Applies |
| Part-time basis for every member other than the chair | 16(3) | Applies | Applies |
Section 16(6) makes paragraph 16(4)(b) inapplicable to the reappointment of a person who remains in office immediately before the new term starts. Therefore, the merit-based selection and public-advertising requirements do not legally bind a qualifying reappointment. The other requirements listed in the table apply to both new and reappointed non-chair members. Source: High Speed Rail Authority Act 2022, sections 16 and 17.
Three years is the legal ceiling on a term
A further limit applies to how long a single appointment can run. A term must not exceed three years. Hanly’s three-year term therefore sits at that ceiling, while Rayner’s two-year term sits below it.
Five board terms announced in 2026 fall into three lengths: three years, two years and six months. In June Rossouw kept the chair for three years. Ian Hunt returned as a member for two years, and Dyan Perry returned for six months. All three had served since the authority started work on 13 June 2023. Perry’s six months is the shortest of the five terms. However, the ministerial releases give lengths rather than start dates, so they do not fix exact expiry dates.
| Member | Role | Length of term | Date announced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jill Rossouw | Chair | Three years | 18 June 2026 |
| Ian Hunt | Member | Two years | 18 June 2026 |
| Dyan Perry | Member | Six months | 18 June 2026 |
| Eva Hanly | Member | Three years | 10 September 2026 |
| Christopher Rayner | Member | Two years | 10 September 2026 |
Five terms across three different lengths were announced in 2026, and the six-month term is the shortest. The ministerial releases give the length of each term and the announcement date, but they do not reproduce the appointment instruments or state when each term began. Exact expiry dates therefore cannot be derived from the releases. Sources: Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, 18 June 2026; Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, 10 September 2026.
The board is back to its full size
Under the Act the board holds five seats: a chair plus four other members. In June the government renewed three of those positions. The September appointments cover the remaining two, so the board is complete again.
Two further provisions matter while a seat stands empty. The minister may name an acting board member during a vacancy. In addition, a quorum is a majority of board members, and the chair has to call four meetings a year at minimum.
What the two new members bring
Hanly advises on strategy and serves as a non-executive director. Her career covers close to thirty years of sourcing, delivering and operating complex infrastructure in transport, mining and energy. She led Squadron Energy as chief executive officer, and she has held senior posts at Worley, Transurban and Origin. She currently serves as Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of New South Wales. Her board seats also include the TAFE NSW Advisory Board.
Rayner comes from the British rail industry. His experience spans rolling stock, systems integration and operations systems. It also takes in the UK’s High Speed 2 programme, together with the maintenance and operating regimes prepared for commissioning High Speed 1. Meanwhile the authority works through a development phase that runs for two years.
