Peter Allen spent more than 20 years in the Victorian Public service in which time he served as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Health and Community Services, Victoria’s Chief Drug Strategy Officer, Director of Schools, Secretary of the Department of Education and Training, Secretary of the Department of Tourism, Sport and the Commonwealth Games and the Victorian Public Sector Standards Commissioner.
In the mid 1990s he headed the Secretariat of the initial Victorian drug enquiry chaired by Prof David Pennington.
Before joining the Victorian Public Service he was Director of Social Policy and Research at the Brotherhood of St Laurence.
He is currently based at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSoG) where he worked as Deputy Dean from 2009-2016.