From Australian Idol to the National Australia Day Council

The current National Australian Day Council chair is none other than John Foreman, who was the musical director on Good Morning Australia for more than a decade and on Australian Idol in its heyday from 2003 to 2008.

This is his first year as chair of the National Australia Day Council and he's been in Canberra attending the Australian of the Year awards and national citizenship and flag-raising ceremony.

"It was a little bit out of the blue," he said on Friday, of the appointment.

"I've been working as a creative director for Australia Day in Sydney for eight or nine years and earlier this year got a call from [Assistant] Minister [to the Prime Minister Patrick] Gorman asking if I'd be interested in being chair of the National Australia Day Council and I was thrilled and quite surprised."

Foreman is also musical director for Channel Nine's Carols by Candlelight and was music director of the TV Week Logie Awards for 20 years.

He has been enjoying his new gig which includes promoting Australia Day and ensuring people take pride in it.

"It's been fantastic to be in this role," he said. "I do feel like I'm learning on the job. I'm very lucky to have a fantastic board of great people. Diverse thinkers, diverse backgrounds.

"It has been a fantastic opportunity to understand our country better through the Australian of the Year process. I was able to travel to every state and territory and be there for the state award dinners where [we] announce all the state nominees and recipients. That's been a really eye-opening opportunity to me to see the incredible depth and breadth of the incredible work being done in this country."

He was also co-hosting Friday night's Australia Day Live concert from the Sydney Opera House.

"Australia Day to me means coming together to reflect upon 65,000-plus years of history, to respect each other, our differences, our diversity, the multi-layered, multicultural, multi-faceted country that we live in and to celebrate the great country that we have."