Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, James Batley will be the guest speaker at CQU Fiji's graduation ceremony.Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, James Batley will be the official guest speaker at the CQU Fiji graduation ceremony next Tuesday, August 21.

Mr Batley, a career foreign service officer, joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1984. He was most recently Special Coordinator to the Solomon Islands, a position he held from August 2004 until November 2006.

In Australia, James served in the South Pacific Bilateral Section (1988-89); as Director, Papua New Guinea Section (1994) and as Assistant Secretary, Mainland South-East Asia and South Asia Branch (2002-2004).

Overseas, Mr Batley has served as Third Secretary, Australian High Commission, Port Vila (1985-88); First Secretary, Australian High Commission, Port Moresby (1990-93); Counsellor, Australian Embassy, Jakarta (1995-97) and as High Commissioner to Solomon Islands (1997-99), concurrently serving as Deputy Leader of the Truce Monitoring Group, Bougainville and Chief Negotiator of the Peace Monitoring Group, Bougainville.

From 1999-2002 James served as Australia's senior diplomatic representative in Dili, East Timor, and was appointed Australia's first Ambassador to East Timor at independence in May 2002.

In 2004, he commenced his role as Special Coordinator to the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), a position he held until his appointment to his current position, in January 2007.

A total of 37 Fijian Business and Informatics students will graduate at next week's ceremony.

The ceremony will be staged at the Holiday Inn, Victoria Parade, Suva at 4.30pm.