Alan Keveral Cumming Newton Wrigley (born 19 July 1931) is an Australian writer and commentator on topics related to intelligence, defence and security. Prior to his writing career, he was an engineer at the Government Aircraft Factories, a senior public servant in the

Department of Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

, and

Director-General of Security The Director-General of Security is the executive officer of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Australia's national security agency. The Director-General, through ASIO, has overall responsibility for the protection of th ...

(the head of the intelligence agency

ASIO ''Asio'' is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in the family Strigidae. This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the short-eared owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North and ...

Early life and military service

Born in 1931 in Launceston, Tasmania, Wrigley joined the

Government Aircraft Factories Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) was the name of an aircraft manufacturer owned by the Government of Australia. The primary factory was located at Fishermans Bend, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria. It had its origins in the lead-up to Worl ...

(GAF) in Melbourne as a cadet engineer in 1950, and later became an aeronautical engineer. In 1975, he joined the Department of Defence as an Assistant Secretary, was promoted to First Assistant Secretary in 1981, and Deputy Secretary under

Bill Pritchett William Beal Pritchett (31 January 1921 – 28 January 2014) was a senior Australian public servant. He was Secretary of the Department of Defence between 1979 and 1984. Early life and education Bill Pritchett was born on 31 January 1921. He a ...

in 1982.''Who's Who in Australia'', ConnectWeb, 2014.

Director-General of Security

On 29 July 1985, Wrigley was appointed as

Director-General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of ASIO. As Director-General, Wrigley implemented several rigorous reforms to the agency, continuing a trend begun under the directorship of Sir

Edward Woodward Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009) was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions ...

by further reducing the level of specialisation and increasing generalisation. He also oversaw the moving of ASIO's headquarters from Melbourne to Canberra in 1986. A number of experienced officers resigned from ASIO after Wrigley abolished benefits and allowances for senior officers moving to Canberra, which had been negotiated with the Hawke government under his predecessor

Harvey Barnett Tudor Harvey Barnett (25 December 1925 – 23 June 1995) was an Australian intelligence officer. Barnett was Director-General of Security, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), from 1981 to 1985. Early life and ...

After ASIO

Wrigley's term as Director-General was to expire at the end of July 1988 but he was appointed, without discussion, to another three-year term by Bob Hawke's cabinet — although the ''Canberra Times'' speculated he would not see out the term as he was rumoured to be considering another position with the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce. Indeed, Wrigley resigned from ASIO on 7 October 1988 to act as a special advisor to the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce (Senator John Button) on the planned Multifunction Polis project until 31 December 1990. In 1990, Wrigley authored a report for the Department of Defence entitled ''The Defence Force and the Community: A Partnership in Australia's Defence'' (also known as 'The Wrigley Report'), which resulted in the creation of the Commercial Support Program (CSP) and ultimately saw the market testing and transfer of around 10,000 uniformed and civilian positions in Defence to the private sector.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrigley, Alan 1931 births Living people Directors-General of Security Australian aerospace engineers Australian non-fiction writers Officers of the Order of Australia RMIT University alumni Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies People from Launceston, Tasmania