Harvey Barnett

Australian security intelligence director

Harvey Barnett
Born	25 December 1925 Albany, Western Australia
Died	23 June 1995 Melbourne
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Intelligence officer; intelligence director
Known for	Director-General of Security, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation 7 September 1981 – 28 July 1985 Former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer in Southeast Asia
Spouse(s)	Deirdre Hartnett
Education	University of Western Australia
Predecessor	Edward Woodward

Harvey Barnett led the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) as director-general of security, from 1981 to 1985.

Office held

Harvey Barnett — intelligence leadership

Office	Start	End	Predecessor	Successor	Source
Director-General of Security, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation	7 September 1981	28 July 1985	Edward Woodward	Alan Wrigley

Intelligence career

Harvey Barnett served in the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War and completed an arts degree at the University of Western Australia. He joined the Australian Secret Intelligence Service in the 1950s and later ran stations in Singapore, Cambodia and South Vietnam. He was its deputy director for operations from 1973 to 1976 before moving into Australian Security Intelligence Organisation leadership.

The Combe–Ivanov affair

As head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Harvey Barnett briefed Bob Hawke in 1983 on the relationship between David Combe, a former Australian Labor Party national secretary, and Soviet diplomat Valery Ivanov. Robert Milliken’s obituary describes ASIO’s concern that Combe was being cultivated for recruitment and records the subsequent expulsion of Ivanov. Milliken reported that the ensuing royal commission vindicated Barnett’s actions, while Combe’s supporters considered ASIO’s response excessive.

Integration with British intelligence in Asia

Brian Toohey and William Pinwill describe Harvey Barnett directing Indochinese and Thai operations within the British Secret Intelligence Service’s Far East headquarters in Singapore. Fellow Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer Ian Kennison at one stage headed the local British station. Barnett later returned to run a separate Australian operation in Singapore. Their account illustrates the extent to which early ASIS officers worked inside British structures before establishing more distinct Australian operations.

Brian Toohey and William Pinwill also identify Deirdre Hartnett, later Harvey Barnett’s wife, as a research officer in the same British section. She was the daughter of industrialist Laurence Hartnett.

Memoirs

After retiring, Harvey Barnett published Tale of the Scorpion in 1988. Robert Milliken interpreted it as an attempt to increase public understanding of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation without revealing major operational secrets.