Agent-general

An agent-general (French: Délégué général or Déléguée générale[1]) is the representative in cities abroad of the government of a Canadian province or an Australian state and, historically, also of a British colony in Jamaica, Nigeria, Canada, Malta, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand and subsequently, of a Nigerian region.

Eventually, agents-general were appointed by some colonies to represent their commercial, legal, and diplomatic interests in Britain and to the British government and Whitehall.

The majority of Australian states continue to have agents-general in London, but operate from Australia House rather than maintain separate premises.

Many Canadian provinces similarly are no longer represented by an agent-general, although Quebec continues to have a Government Office in London (Délégation générale du Québec à Londres[1]) and in several other cities around the world.

From 1972 to 1993, the Agent-General's Office was located in separate premises from Australia House, at the nearby address of 66 The Strand, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May 1972.

This occurred following an expenses scandal by the last Agent-General, Neil Pickard, who had been appointed as a consolation for losing his seat in parliament.

[8] Following its abolition, Fahey noted to Parliament: "It was abundantly clear to me, to all Cabinet and to all Government that we no longer needed an agent-general's office in London.

In the early 1960s, the government of Jean Lesage began to open additional offices abroad appointing in Paris (1961), London (1962), Rome and Milan (1965) and subsequent governments opened offices in Chicago (1969), Boston, Lafayette, Dallas and Los Angeles (1970), Munich and Berlin (1971), Brussels (1972), Atlanta (1977), Washington (1978), Mexico City and Tokyo (1980), Beijing and Santiago (1998), Shanghai and Barcelona (1999), Mumbai (2007), São Paulo (2008) and Moscow (2012).

[54] With the granting of responsible self-government to Malta in 1921, a proposal of the government of Lord Strickland to appoint an agent-general to "encourage the migration of Maltese to the Northern Territory and north-west Australia" was presented to the parliament.