Tudor Harvey Barnett (25 December 1925 – 23 June 1995) was an Australian

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a ...

. Barnett was

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

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO ) 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 vio ...

(ASIO), from 1981 to 1985.

Early life and military service

Barnett was born in

Albany, Western Australia Albany ( ; nys, Kinjarling) is a port city in the Great Southern region in the Australian state of Western Australia, southeast of Perth, the state capital. The city centre is at the northern edge of Princess Royal Harbour, which is a ...

to a family of shopkeepers. He attended an Anglican boarding school near

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, and in February 1944 enslisted in the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. At the time of his discharge on 29 May 1956, he held the rank of

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

in the

RANVR Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) was a reserve force of the Royal Australian Navy. Formation In late 1920, the Navy Board proposed the creation of an Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve scheme, with approaches made to yac ...

Special Branch and was stationed at the shore training base HMAS ''Cerberus''.BARNETT, TUDOR HARVEY
, ''World War II Nominal Roll'', Department of Veterans' Affairs, 2002. After the war, Barnett returned to university to complete a Bachelor of Arts at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

, where he was a contemporary of future Prime Minister

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (A ...

. He spent some time travelling in Europe where he taught in England and Germany.

Intelligence work

On his return to Australia in the mid-1950s, Barnett was recruited into the

Australian Secret Intelligence Service Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

(ASIS), Australia's foreign intelligence agency. He was head of the Australian stations in Singapore, Cambodia and South Vietnam, and later rose to the position of Deputy Director-General of ASIS. In September 1981, Barnett was appointed

. On 20 April 1983, Barnett requested and was granted an urgent meeting with the newly elected Prime Minister,

, whereupon he briefed him on what he called a 'matter of national security'—ASIO was aware of several meetings between

David Combe Harvey David Mathew Combe (26 April 1943 – 21 September 2019) was National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), a political consultant and lobbyist, an Australian Trade Commissioner, a Senior Vice-President International of Southcor ...

, the national secretary of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

, and First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Australia,

Valery Ivanov Valery Nikolayevich Ivanov (russian: Валерий Николаевич Иванов) (born 1948) was a Soviet diplomat. As First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy to Australia, he was expelled on 22 April 1983 under suspicion of being a spy afte ...

. In what became known as the Combe–Ivanov affair, Hawke resolved to remove any possibility of Combe being recruited by Soviet intelligence. Ivanov was expelled from Australia, and although the second Hope Royal Commission in 1984 established that attempts were being made to recruit Combe, no intelligence breaches had taken place. Three years after his 1985 retirement from ASIO, Barnett published his memoirs, ''Tale of the Scorpion'' ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Harvey 1925 births 1995 deaths Directors-General of Security Officers of the Order of Australia Royal Australian Navy officers Royal Australian Navy personnel of World War II University of Western Australia alumni People from Albany, Western Australia Intelligence analysts