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 Southcorp Wines, and a consultant to the Australian wine industry. He achieved a degree of unwanted prominence through the Combe-Ivanov affair of 1983.

David Combe
National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party
In office 10 July 1973 – 28 July 1981
Preceded by	Mick Young
Succeeded by	Bob McMullan
Personal details
Born	Harvey David Mathew Combe 26 April 1943 Adelaide, South Australia
Died	21 September 2019 (aged 76)
Nationality	Australian
Spouse(s)	Meena Blesing, Maggie Gilchrist
Residence	Sydney, Australia
Education	Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide
Occupation	Political official, lobbyist, Australian Trade Commissioner in Canada and Hong Kong
Known for	National Secretary, Australian Labor Party and involvement in a Russian spy scandal in 1983

Early life

Harvey David Mathew Combe was born in 1943 in Adelaide, South Australia, and was educated at Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide where he earned a BA. He became interested in politics at university and joined the ALP, partly through his friendship with Don Dunstan. (He became Patron of the Don Dunstan Foundation in 2004.)[1]^:pp.230,240

Career

Combe was National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party (1973–1981), a political consultant and lobbyist (1981–1985), and an Australian senior trade commissioner (1985–1991), and held senior executive and board positions within the Australian wine industry (1991–2008).

Politics

In 1973 Combe became the youngest-ever National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party after the election of the first Labor government for 23 years. In November 1975, he was allegedly the co-instigator, with Gough Whitlam and Bill Hartley, of an unsuccessful approach to Saddam Hussein's Iraq for a gift of $US 500,000 to help fund Labor's 1975 election campaign.[2] However former Labor Party leader, Bill Hayden, later Governor-General of Australia, in his autobiography published in 1996, reflected the doubts held by some about the blame attached to Combe over the episode when he said that " ... it appeared that the national secretary of the Party, David Combe, was being left isolated as a scapegoat in this fanciful escapade."[3] In the event, Labor lost the 1975 election. In an article published in The Bulletin in January 1982 Combe suggested that Labor's defeat was partly due to the influence of the CIA.[4]^:p.232

Combe remained National Secretary until July 1981, when he resigned to establish a lobbying business, David Combe and Associates Pty Ltd. The firm reportedly "received a great fillip in March 1983, when the Labor Party was re-elected to office. Business perceived Combe as the most influential lobbyist then working in Canberra."[5]^:p.1

Combe-Ivanov affair

In 1983 Combe was accused of compromising Australia's national security in dealings with a Soviet diplomat, Valery Ivanov.[5][6][4]

The 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 ASIO raised concerns that Combe, closely aligned to the ALP, might be being compromised by a Soviet citizen with KGB links. Ivanov was expelled from Australia in 1983 by Prime Minister Bob Hawke.[7]

The highly publicised events were investigated by the Hope Royal Commission on Australia's security and intelligence agencies of 1983–1984. The commission found that Combe had indeed been targeted by the Soviets, but there was no proof of intelligence breaches or of any threat to national security.[8] Speaking after Combe died on 21 September 2019, former Hawke government minister and NSW Labor Party Secretary Graham Richardson said that Combe's death had saddened him and that "David make a big contribution and the whole Ivanov thing ... well, he got short-changed."[9] Richardson said that the handling of the Ivanov affair "... was a massive overreaction ... but we had no experience in dealing with that ... we didn't know what to do."[10]

Trade commissioner

Combe was later appointed as Australia's senior trade commissioner in Western Canada from 1985 to 1989, and in Hong Kong from 1990 to 1991.[1]

Wine industry

Combe was Senior Vice-President International and ran the European operations of Penfolds and Southcorp Wines during the rise in popularity of Australian wines in the 1990s. He is credited with developing significant export markets for Southcorp Wines, whose exports increased in value from $A 40 million in August 1991 to $A 300 million in June 2000.[1] In 2000 Combe was named Australia's Top Export Salesman by Overseas Trading magazine and was included in the list of "Twenty Five Most Influential Australians in Asia" published by Business Asia magazine.[11]

From March 2001 to November 2003 Combe was a non-executive director for the Western Australian wine producer Evans and Tate Limited.

In 2004, in a speech at Bordeaux, he lambasted the wine-purchasing policies of UK supermarkets, which, he said, "if committed in Australia, would represent major breaches of the trade practices laws".[12]

In June 2004 he was appointed Chairman of Simon Gilbert Wines, He retired as a director and chairman in February 2007, "to take up another position within the wine industry".[13]

Portrait

In 1983, Keith Looby painted Combe's portrait. The portrait was an unsuccessful entry in the Archibald Prize of 1983, and conspiracy theories on this matter abound. David Combe said in 1998 that there was 'circumstantially a good case to believe that some trustees were heavied by the Party' into rejecting the work.[1][4] In 1998, Combe donated his portrait to the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, "through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program".[1]

Death

Combe died on 21 September 2019, aged 76.[14] The national president of the Labor Party, former deputy prime minister of Australia Wayne Swan, paid tribute to Combe saying that as national secretary of the party, he had "revolutionised the party's conferences, turning them from concealed and private affairs into public events which are now the largest political gatherings in Australia."[15] His friend Richard Whitington, in an affectionate obituary, said that "the twists and turns in David Combe's life and career demanded courage and resilience of him and he displayed those qualities consistently and in abundance." Talking of Combe's work with the Labor Party, Whitington observed that, "He was a product of the Labor movement and a servant to it, motivated by strongly held beliefs in individual rights and Australia's potential as a more caring, compassionate and independent nation."[16]

References

1. David Combe and the portrait, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2. Parkinson, Tony Shame, Whitlam, Shame The Age, 15 November 2005
3. Bill Hayden, 1996, "Hayden: An Autobiography", Sydney: HarperCollins, p. 305.
4. 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".
5. 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".
6. Milliken R Harvey Barnett Obituary The Independent, London, 1 August 1995
7. "Australia Scandal Erupts Over Soviet Diplomat". The New York Times. 12 May 1983. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
8. Pryor, Geoff, , National Library of Australia, retrieved 1 July 2015.
9. Troy Bramston and Simon Benson, 'Hawke, Russian Spies and sad goodbyes to David Combe', The Australian, 25 September 2019.
10. Ibid.
11. Speaker's profile: David Combe, at Claxton Speakers (undated)
12. Erhlich, R My Round: State of Independence The Independent, London, 11 April 2004
13. Simon Gilbert Wines board statement Archived 19 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, 14 February 2007.
14. Bramston and Benson, op. cit.
15. Wayne Swan, 'Vale David Combe (1943-2019)', Labor Party website, accessed 29 September 2019.
16. Richard Whitington, 'Much more to Labor servant than probe over links to Russian agent', Sydney Morning Herald 30 September 2019. See also an extended version of this obituary at Richard Whitington, 'RIP David Combe: often challenged, always charming', Richard Whitington website, accessed 29 September 2019.

Further reading

• Marr, David. The Ivanov Trail. Melbourne: Nelson, 1984. ISBN 0-17-006405-0 NLA catalogue, more info
• Aarons, Laurie. The Stumblebum Syndrome: ASIO and David Combe: The "Security" Threat to Australian Democracy. Sydney : Red Pen Publications, 1984. ISBN 0-909913-59-5 NLA catalogue
• Royal Commission on Australia's Security and Intelligence Agencies, General Report, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1985. ISBN 0-644-04094-7 NLA catalogue