Combe-Ivanov affair

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The Combe-Ivanov affair was an Australian political scandal of 1983. A Soviet diplomat and KGB spy, Valery Ivanov, was expelled after he was found to have compromised a senior Australian Labor Party (ALP) figure, David Combe. The affair also claimed the political scalp of a minister, Mick Young, and resulted in a Royal Commission being established under Justice Robert Hope to review Australia's security and intelligence agencies.

KGB main security agency for the Soviet Union

The KGB, translated in English as Committee for State Security, was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. As a direct successor of preceding agencies such as Cheka, NKGB, NKVD and MGB, the committee was attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", acting as internal security, intelligence and secret police. Similar agencies were constituted in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russia, and consisted of many ministries, state committees and state commissions.

Valery Nikolayevich Ivanov was a Soviet diplomat.

Australian Labor Party Political party in Australia

The Australian Labor Party is a major centre-left political party in Australia. The party has been in opposition at the federal level since the 2013 election. Bill Shorten has been the party's federal parliamentary leader since 13 October 2013. The party is a federal party with branches in each state and territory. Labor is in government in the states of Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and in both the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. The party competes against the Liberal/National Coalition for political office at the federal and state levels. It is the oldest political party in Australia.

The affair

In 1983 David Combe, lobbyist and former National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), was accused of compromising Australia's national security in dealings with a Soviet diplomat, Valery Ivanov. [1] [2] [3]

David Combe was National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), a political consultant and lobbyist, an Australian Trade Commissioner, a Senior Vice-President International of Southcorp Wines, and a consultant to the Australian wine industry.

The so-called Combe-Ivanov affair developed out of a trip Combe and his wife made to the USSR in 1982, in the course of preparations for which they met and developed a relationship with Valery Ivanov, then the First Secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Canberra. Soon after the formation of the Hawke government in March 1983, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) raised concerns that Combe, still closely aligned to the ALP, might be being compromised by a Soviet citizen with KGB links. Ivanov was expelled from Australia on 22 April 1983 by Prime Minister Bob Hawke. [4] Ministers were also directed not to use Combe's lobbying services, although the reason for this was not made known to them at the time.

Canberra capital city of Australia

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of 410,301, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), 280 km (170 mi) south-west of Sydney, and 660 km (410 mi) north-east of Melbourne. A resident of Canberra is known as a Canberran. Although Canberra is the capital and seat of government, many federal government ministries have secondary seats in state capital cities, as do the Governor-General and the Prime Minister.

Bob Hawke Australian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia

Robert James Lee Hawke, is an Australian former politician who was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and the Leader of the Labor Party from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving Labor Party Prime Minister.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security agency responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and terrorism. ASIO is comparable with the British Security Service (MI5) and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). ASIO is part of the Australian Intelligence Community.

On 17 May Justice Robert Hope was commissioned to investigate the affair but also to review the general progress of the intelligence agencies he had inquired into in 1974-77 at the behest of Gough Whitlam (his first reports were handed down in 1975, during Malcolm Fraser's premiership).

Robert Marsden Hope Australian judge

Robert Marsden Hope, was a Justice of the New South Wales Court of Appeal and Royal Commissioner on three separate occasions, most notably the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security. As a judge Hope was known for his legal positivism and as a royal commissioner he "instilled a sense of impartiality".

The Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security (RCIS), also known as the First Hope Commission, was a Royal Commission established on 21 August 1974 by Prime Minister of Australia Gough Whitlam to reach findings and make recommendations as to the Australian Intelligence Community.

Gough Whitlam Australian politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia

Edward Gough Whitlam was the 21st Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The Leader of the Labor Party from 1967 to 1977, Whitlam led his party to power for the first time in 23 years at the 1972 election. He won the 1974 election before being controversially dismissed by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam remains the only Australian prime minister to have his commission terminated in that manner.

Mick Young, the Special Minister of State and Vice-President of the Executive Council (and himself a former ALP National Secretary 1969-72), was forced to stand down from the Ministry on 14 July when it was revealed he had breached Cabinet security, having talked to a journalist immediately after the 21 April Cabinet decision to expel Ivanov. [5]

Michael Jerome Young was an Australian politician. He rose through the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to become its National Secretary, before serving as a Labor member of the House of Representatives from the 1974 election to 1988. He was a senior minister in the Hawke government, and was a prominent political figure during the 1970s and 1980s.

In December 1983 Justice Hope reported that David Combe had indeed been targeted by the Soviets, but there was no proof of intelligence breaches or of any threat to national security; [6] and that with Ivanov’s expulsion there was no longer any reason to limit Combe’s access to ministers. Cabinet decided to set up a register of lobbyists. Registration would be voluntary, but unregistered lobbyists would have no access to ministers or officials. [7]

Mick Young returned to the Cabinet in January 1984. Combe was later appointed Australian Trade Commissioner to Canada and Hong Kong.

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References

  1. ↑ Blesing, Meena. Was Your Dad a Russian Spy? The Personal Story of the Combe/Ivanov Affair. Sun Books, 1986.
    The National Library of Australia catalogue entry states: "by David Combe's wife, Meena Blesing".
  2. ↑ Milliken R Harvey Barnett Obituary The Independent, London, 1 August 1995
  3. ↑ Cain, Frank The Australian Security Intelligence Organization: An Unofficial History, Abingdon: Frank Cass & Co Ltd 1994 ISBN   0-7146-3477-8. Preview at Google books. Of particular relevance, Ch. 10: ASIO in the 1980s pp223-252;
    "Australian-Soviet Trade" pp.227–228,
    "The Third Man – Lawrence Matheson" pp228-230 and
    "The Rise and Fall of David Combe" pp230-234.
    The rest of the chapter discusses "ASIO and the Combe-Ivanov affair" and "Justice Hope's Royal Commission".
  4. ↑ "Australia Scandal Erupts Over Soviet Diplomat". The New York Times. 12 May 1983. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  5. ↑ Samantha Maiden, Daily Telegraph, 1 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2019
  6. ↑ Pryor, Geoff, , National Library of Australia, retrieved 1 July 2015.
  7. ↑ National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 6 January 2019
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