Sir Peter James Lawler OBE (23 March 1921 – 1 April 2017) was an Australian senior public servant and diplomat.
He served in senior roles under Prime Ministers Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke, and ended his career as Ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See.
[3] In 1951, along with Kenneth Herde, he was seconded to the UK Cabinet Office in London to do research on the workings of government, with a view to bringing back ideas that could be applied within the Australian context.
[4] Lawler's and Herde's recommendations led to Robert Menzies' decision to establish a Cabinet Office in Canberra as a separate and discrete part of the Prime Minister's Department.
[8] In October 1967, as Acting Secretary, he was involved in the VIP aircraft affair that threatened the premiership of Menzies' successor Harold Holt, but used his experience and shrewdness to protect himself and escape the odium that was visited on Sir John Bunting.
[3] After Sir Robert Mark's report on the organisation of protective services in the wake of the February 1978 Sydney Hilton bombing, the Fraser government set up a small taskforce, headed by Peter Lawler, to implement the recommended creation of the Australian Federal Police.