Bruce Hunt was a Research Fellow in the School of History, College of Arts and Social Sciences, at the Australian National University.  He was an officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) from 1974 until his retirement in mid-2011.  He was posted to the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby from 1985 to 1987 and was Director of the PNG Section in DFAT from 1990 to 1994 and again from 2000 to 2003.

In 1999 he was appointed Chief Negotiator in the Peace Monitoring Group on Bougainville.  In 2000 he was an adviser to the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group set up to examine the challenges faced by the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.  His other postings have been to Bonn, Harare, Tel Aviv and as High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Tonga.

In 1996 he attended the Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies (now known as the Australian Defence College). He was a Fellow of the College. He was awarded a PhD from the University of New England in 2003.