Michael Coutts-Trotter

Michael Coutts-Trotter is an Australian public servant who is the current Acting Secretary of the New South Wales Treasury. He was previously the Secretaries of the New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of Communities and Justice, the director-generals of the Department of Education and Department of Finance and Services. Coutts-Trotter served almost three years of a nine-year prison sentence after being convicted for the importation and distribution of heroin into Australia in 1986. Early life Coutts-Trotter was born in England and arrived in Australia with his parents in 1976. His father Paul was the son of Sir Murray Coutts-Trotter, former chief Justice of Madras, while his mother Helen was from Cootamundra. Coutts-Trotter matriculated from Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview. In 1986, he received a nine-year prison sentence as a drug dealer selling heroin to addicts. He served two years and nine months in jail before parole in 1988. He graduated from the University of Technology Sydney with a degree in communications in 1995. Public service career In April 2007, Coutts-Trotter was appointed Director-General of the NSW Department of Education. This appointment was criticised by opposition members of parliament, the NSW Teachers Federation and the Public Principals Forum for his lack of experience in teaching and education and his criminal conviction as a heroin trafficker.