John Halligan is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration, at the University of Canberra, Australia.

His research interests are comparative public management and governance, specifically public sector reform, performance management and government institutions. He specialises in the Anglophone countries of Australia and New Zealand, and for comparative purposes, Canada and the United Kingdom. Current studies are Corporate Governance in the Public Sector, Performance Management, and a comparative analysis of public management.

He is project director of a major ARC research project on Whole of Government in the Australian Public Sector. His main interests in the project are: whole of government as an approach to public sector management coordination in government, including the impact of new experiments role of central agencies in steering and coordinating public sector change (including the contribution of whole of government to cultural change).

Professor Halligan has held academic appointments at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University, and visiting positions at various institutions including Georgetown University (Washington DC), Australian National University, Catholic University of Leuven and the Victoria University of Wellington.

Professional activities include Deputy President, Institute of Public Administration Australia (ACT Division). His consultancies include projects with international organisations: OECD, Commonwealth Secretariat, United Nations Development Program and World Bank; and with Australian government departments and state and local governments.