Thaarramali Pearson is a Bama Bagarrmuguwarra from the Kalpowar, Jeannie River and Starke region of Cape York.

Thaarramali has over a decade of Commonwealth public service experience across central and line agencies, with deep expertise in budget process, policy costing, and expenditure estimates. His substantive position is as a Director in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, where he developed financial and behavioural modelling to inform Australian apprenticeship policy. Prior to this, Thaarramali held roles in the Department of Finance, providing advice across the higher education, employment, skills, and veterans' affairs portfolios; and has been seconded to taskforces in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Department of the Treasury.

Thaarramali holds a Master of Public Administration at the Australian National University and is now undertaking PhD research examining how procedural budget rules—specifically financial offset requirements and costings processes—structure policy choices and program design in the Australian Public Service.

Supervisor: Associate Professor Michael Di Francesco