Allan Asher was the Commonwealth Ombudsman of Australia and a former deputy chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. He was a board member of the United Kingdom Office of Fair Trading and CEO of the consumer watchdog organisation EnergyWatch.[1]
He joined Energy Watch from the U.K. Consumers' Association where he was Director of Campaigns and Communication and a member of the senior management group and previously worked for Consumers International which is a global NGO made up of 240 groups from 110 countries.[1]
In Australia, Asher is best known as a consumer advocate and also as having been a worker for the Australian Consumers Association. He was CEO of the Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN).[2]
On 23 July 2010, the Australian Government announced Asher's appointment as Commonwealth Ombudsman from 30 August 2010.
On 20 October 2011, Asher resigned after it was revealed that he provided questions for Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to ask him during a Senate committee hearing in May. The questions were intended to highlight inadequate funding for his office and problems with immigration detention centres.