Liz Cosson's story

Liz Cosson joined the Australian Army in 1979 as an officer cadet and was commissioned in the Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps. During the early part of her career, Liz worked as a supply and administrative officer.

In 1991, Liz joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Logistics Command, where she was responsible for the logistics support to army aviation aircraft. Her tasks included improving the availability of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter fleet and supporting the fleet deployment to Cambodia.

In 1995, Liz was a logistics staff officer at Headquarters Land Command. Her responsibilities included logistics planning in support of the 1999 operations in East Timor.

Liz deployed to Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, in November 1999. She was the Chief of Staff of the Peace Monitoring Group (PMG).

After Bougainville, Liz served with Defence Corporate Services before being seconded to the Joint Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade in the House of Representatives. In 2002, Liz started a 3-year appointment in strategic logistics planning. She was responsible for developing logistics policy and concepts to improve logistics information systems.

In 2005, Liz was promoted to Brigadier and served as the Director General Regions and Bases. She managed integrated service delivery to Australian Defence Force bases across the country. Then in 2007, she became Head Defence Support Operations in an acting capacity and was promoted to Major General.

Liz retired from the Australian Defence Force in 2010 and joined the Australian Public Service. She was Secretary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs from May 2018 to January 2023.