David Stanton is currently an Honorary Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.He works with the Policy and Governance Program and is a member of the Social Policy Institute at Crawford School. He has helped develop a social policy stream in the Crawford Masters of Public Policy Program. He has been responsible for two intensive courses: POGO 8084 “Principles of Social Policy” and POGO 8085 “Social Policy Implementation and Service Delivery” and also lectures in other social policy courses..

He is also a Consultant Social Security Planner and Policy Analyst operating as Stanton Strategic Solutions. From August 2004 to June 2005 he was Deputy Chair of the Ministerial Task Force on Child Support and he held the position of Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) from May 1999 to January 2003. In recent years he has also been a consultant to the Australian National Audit Office and was a member of the Board of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) from 2009 to 2012.

David worked for the Australian Government in various positions over some 36 years up to the equivalent of Deputy Secretary level. He started in the Australian Public Service with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and then with the Department of Social Security (DSS). He held various Division Head Positions with DSS for some 12 years, including as Head of the (then) research and policy Division of the Department (Development Division, subsequently Social Policy Division), the Family Programs Division, Performance and Control Division and Evaluation and Services Division. He also worked on the service delivery side of DSS having been Director of DSS for NSW from 1987 to 1990. He played a key part in the establishment of the Departments Research and Policy Paper series and the Social Security Journal.

David maintains a strong interest in social policy research and is working with others on the economic and social implications of divorce and sole parenthood, as well as on aspects of the historical development of social security policy, the policy development process, and the role of research and evaluation in social policy.

David has also worked as a Social Policy Consultant/Economist with International Agencies (including the International Labour Office and the Asian Development Bank) in such countries as China, Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago. He has been responsible for reviews of pension provision in the Asia and Oceania region. He was a member of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) Advisory Committee on Social Security Research for some 10 years and actively participated in the various forums of the ISSA throughout the world.

David was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division (AM) in the 2017 Australia Day Honours List. The citation for the honour is : “For distinguished service to public administration, to social policy development and as an academic”. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) in September 2017.