Author of Don't forget me, cobber! and A is for ANZAC
Matt was born in Melbourne and educated at St Timothy's Primary School and St Thomas More College Secondary School (now called Emmaus College) where he was school captain. After leaving school he continued to study, graduating from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1988, and obtaining an Arts Degree in International Relations from Deakin University and a Masters Degree in Foreign Affairs and Trade from Monash University.
During his military service he was posted to Canberra, Sydney, Perth (where he met his wife, Lou) and Melbourne. He spent eight months leading a Defence Cooperation Project in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Since joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1995, Matt has lived in Canberra and been posted to South Africa and Papua New Guinea, and was Australia's High Commissioner to Samoa (2007-11) and Solomon Islands (2011-13). He has also been an international election monitor in Cambodia in 1998, and was the Chief Negotiator of the four-nation Peace Monitoring Group on Bougainville in 2001, and again in 2002. Matt was awarded the Public Service Medal in the 2011 Australia Day Honours List for his role leading the Australian consular and humanitarian response to the 2009 tsunami in Samoa.
He has two young daughters (Meg and Kate) and a son, Harry, who have not yet missed an ANZAC Day.