Kenneth Ross Henry AC (born 27 November 1957) is an Australian economist and public servant who served as the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury from 2001 to 2011.

He retired from the civil service in March 2011, and weeks later was appointed Special Adviser to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

He was the Treasury department secretary from April 2001 until March 2011; and therefore an ex-officio member of the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

[6] In 2004, Henry recommended a National Emissions Trading Scheme to thwart climate change, however the advice at the time was ignored.

We knew that Hewson’s package was going to include a broad based consumption tax, the thing which in 1985 we were helping the Government to design.

[8] In April 2007, the Australian Financial Review's Laura Tingle ran a story about Henry's semi-annual speech to staff.

We are competing for influence with other central agencies, line agencies and independent policy advisers, such as think-tanks, commentators and consultants.... As I have noted on other occasions, I have never known the Treasurer to not welcome frank and honest advice when it is provided in-confidence and in good faith.Immediately prior to Henry's appearance at a Senate hearing into the Rudd Government's unlimited Bank Deposit Guarantee Scheme, an email from the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Glenn Stevens, to Henry was reported on in the media.

No text was published, however the Australian newspaper alleged that the email expressed concerns of the Reserve Bank about a 'flight to safety' caused by the unlimited guarantee of deposits in Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions, and the consequent loss of liquidity in secondary credit markets.

Henry said that the Opposition's claim that Mr Rudd had ignored Reserve Bank warnings was based on a report in The Australian newspaper.

"[13] Treasury, under Henry, gave advice supporting the Rudd Government's stimulus package, which was designed to lessen the size of an economic recession in Australia following the global financial crisis.

[15] The classical Keynesian response embodied in the stimulus package, the desire to maintain expenditure in the economy, and the desire to avoid the destruction of human capital from a recession was encapsulated in the phrase attributed to Henry:[16] Go early, go hard and go households.Henry stated that the stimulus package would either reduce future Government spending or drive up taxes, but he also said that this would occur in "a period of faster growth in private sector activity and the judgment that has been made is that in those circumstances .

[15] Henry provided advice to the Rudd Government that without the continuation of the stimulus package, 100,000 jobs would be lost, and GDP would reduce by 1.5 percent.

[9] Further, graphs were subsequently printed in the budget papers purporting to show that there was a statistically significant correlation with the size of G20 member countries' stimulus packages and their respective economic performances, however the data had been cherry picked and only 11 G20 economies had been included in the analysis.

[29] On 1 June 2011, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced Henry had been appointed by the Governor General as a Special Adviser on a part-time basis in her portfolio.

[31] Henry led the writing of a White Paper on the topic "Australia in the Asian Century", publicly released in mid-2012.

[32] He was assisted by Professor Peter Drysdale, Catherine Livingstone, Chair of Telstra, and John Denton, CEO of Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

[35] Appearing before the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry in November 2018, Henry was defensive, with some tense exchanges with Counsel Assisting, Rowena Orr.

[52] In the 2007 Australia Day Honours list, Henry was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for service to the development and implementation of economic and taxation policy, to the finance sector through a range of banking and regulatory bodies, and to the community in the area of welfare and care of native wildlife,[53] and received the Centenary Medal in 2001.