Glenda Hiroko Gauci

Glenda Hiroko Gauci (1958-2006) was an Australian Diplomat.

Glenda was the first woman of Maltese/Japanese extraction who reached this level in the Australian diplomatic service. She was born in Melbourne in 1958. Her mother was Japanese and her father, John William Gauci, was born in Melbourne of Maltese parents. He was a waterside worker who had met his wife in Japan after the end of World War II and settled in Footscray, (Melbourne) in 1957.

Diplomatic career

Glenda graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1st Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne in 1980, majoring in international relations and public administration. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws at the University of Melbourne in 1984 and completed a Master in International Law at the Australian National University in 1985.

Glenda started in private legal practice in Melbourne in 1983 and then joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1984 in the UN Political and Legal Japan Section. In 1987 she was Third, and later Second Secretary, and Executive Assistant Ambassador at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo.

She had other positions: including Executive Assistant, Fraud Prevention and Ethics Section (Corporate Services Division, 1991) and A/Assistant Secretary, Enterprise Bargaining Agreement Taskforce (1992). She became Director, Corporate Projects Section, CSD (1993), Director of the Industrial and New Trade Issues Section (1994), Counsellor Trade Policy and Trade Relations Sections (1995), and Minister/Counsellor (Australian Embassy, Tokyo, 1997). Subsequently she held positions of Assistant Secretary, Mainland South East Asia Branch (1998) and later as Ambassador to Cambodia and Minister/Counsellor in the Australian Embassy in Washington (2001).

Awards and recognitions

Glenda obtained various academic awards, including the First Year Political Science Prize (1977), the International Relations Prize (shared) (1978), the Public Administration Prize (1979) and the Fourth Year Political Science Prize (1980).

Glenda died in 2006 at the age of 47 from mesothelioma, a tumour most likely resulting from inhalation of asbestos fibres brought home on his clothing by her father while she was still a young girl, a clear illustration of the tragedy resulting from poor working conditions suffered by children of the first migrants.

She was married to David Love and has a son, Dominic (b 1987) and a daughter, Imogen (b 1990).