About the High Commission
The Australian High Commission in Ottawa is responsible for advancing Australia’s interests in Canada. We work closely with the Australian Consulate-General in Toronto, the Australian Consulate in Vancouver and the Canadian Government and business community to promote Australia, pursue our foreign policy, trade and security interests, and support Australian businesses in Canada.
The High Commission also provides consular services to Australians in Ontario (excluding the southwestern corner below Kingston), Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Bermuda. It also provides passport and notarial services.
The Australian Consulate General in Toronto and the Australian Consulate in Vancouver provide consular assistance in Canada outside the jurisdictions noted above.
Contact details and business hours for the High Commission
Days on which the High Commission will be closed
The Hon Scott Ryan
High Commissioner
The Honourable Scott Ryan commenced as Australia’s High Commissioner to Canada in December 2021.
Immediately prior to this Scott was the 25th President of the Senate in the Australian Parliament.
Scott was elected to this office in November 2017 and re-elected in July 2019. He is the youngest person ever elected to that office.
Scott was elected to the Australian Parliament on three occasions, in 2007, 2013 and 2016.
He held various ministerial portfolios and offices in the Australian Government from 2013-2017. These included Special Minister of State, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cabinet, Minister Assisting the Cabinet Secretary, Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, Assistant Cabinet Secretary and Parliamentary Secretary for Education &Training. He also chaired the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration.
Prior to serving in public office, Scott worked in the pharmaceutical and health sector, as a consultant in the health and insurance industries, in various capacities in state and federal politics and as a tutor in political science at the University of Melbourne.
Scott is married to Helen, and they have two young boys.
Anne Witheford
Deputy High Commissioner
Anne Witheford is a career member of the Australian foreign service and the current Deputy Head of Mission of the Australian High Commission Ottawa. She most recently served in DFAT headquarters in Canberra leading a Japan bilateral team and a geostrategic likemindeds engagement team.
Prior to this, Anne served as Adviser to the Australian Foreign Minister and in the Departent of Prime Minister and Cabinet as Southeast Asia Adviser (ASEAN), later North Asia Adviser (China, Japan, Koreas).
Overseas, Anne has completed assignments in Singapore and Manila. She also served as International Staff of the Asian Development Bank working in China, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Earlier in her career, Anne worked for the Senator Chair of the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
Anne completed the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives in National and International Security Program. She holds a combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law degree (double honours) from the Australian National University and a Masters of International Relations. Anne is married with three children.
Josh Riley
Consul General and Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner
Josh Riley is Australia’s Consul General & Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner in Canada. In this capacity he leads Australia’s trade promotion and investment attraction priorities in Canada, while overseeing the Australian Consulate-General in Toronto and Consulate in Vancouver. He is also the sector lead for Resources, New Energy, and Circular Economy for the United States of America and Canada.
Josh is a proud descendant of the Wiradjuri people with family ties to the Negros Island Region in the Philippines. He is the first Indigenous Australian appointed as Consul General to a Commonwealth country and brings a depth of corporate, not-for-profit and policy experience gained across Australia and Canada.
In 2021, Josh joined Austrade’s strategy team as Director, Trade Expansion. Prior to this he was Director, Corporate Citizenship at the Business Council of Australia. In this capacity he led the launch of Raising the Bar in collaboration with Supply Nation, through which 17 of Australia’s largest companies committed to spend over $3 billion with Indigenous suppliers.
From 2015 to 2018, Josh lived in Toronto, Canada where he was Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, where he was instrumental in the Canadian Government’s commitment to implement a target to award five percent of federal contracts to Indigenous businesses. Before this he spent over ten years in the banking industry across ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank.
Josh drove the creation of the Australia-Canada Indigenous Economic Partnership which launched in 2020. He previously chaired the Indigenous Technology, Trade, and Investment Workstream of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, and was Deputy Chair of NAISDA, Australia’s premier Indigenous dance training institute.