David Combe - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

David Combe was National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, 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.

Early life

Harvey David Mathew Combe was born in 1943 in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

and was educated at Prince Alfred College

Prince Alfred College

Prince Alfred College is an independent, day and boarding school for boys, located on Dequetteville Terrace, Kent Town, near the centre of Adelaide, South Australia...

and the University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

(B.A.). He became interested in politics at university and joined the ALP, partly through his friendship with Don Dunstan

Don Dunstan

Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan, AC, QC was a South Australian politician. He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953, became state Labor leader in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979.The son of a business...

. (He has been Patron of the Don Dunstan Foundation since 2004.)

Career

Combe was national secretary of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

(1973–1981), a political consultant and lobbyist (1981–1985), an Australian senior trade commissioner (1985–1991), and has held senior executive and board positions within the Australian wine industry (1991–2008).

Politics

After completing an arts degree at the University of Adelaide, Combe became active in Labor Party affairs in South Australia. He moved to Canberra and in 1973 became the youngest serving National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party after the election of the first Labor government for 23 years

Australian federal election, 1972

Federal elections were held in Australia on 2 December 1972. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The Liberal Party of Australia had been in power since 1949, under Prime Minister of Australia William McMahon since March 1971 with coalition partner the Country Party...

. In November 1975, he was allegedly co-instigator, with Gough Whitlam

Gough Whitlam

Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...

and Bill Hartley, of an (unsuccessful) approach to Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

's Iraq for a $US500,000 gift to help fund Labor's 1975 election campaign. Labor lost the 1975 election

Australian federal election, 1975

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1975. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election following a double dissolution of both Houses....

. He propagated the notion that Labor's defeat in the election had been contributed to by CIA interference, and wrote an article on the subject which appeared in The Bulletin in January 1982.

Combe remained National Secretary until July 1981, at which time he resigned to establish his own lobbying business, David Combe and Associates Pty Ltd. The business reportedly "received a great fillip in March 1983

Australian federal election, 1983

Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 March 1983. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election, following a double dissolution...

, when the Labor Party was re-elected to office. Business perceived Combe as the most influential lobbyist then working in Canberra".

Combe-Ivanov affair

In 1983, he was accused of compromising Australia's national security in dealings with Soviet diplomat Valery Ivanov

Valery Ivanov

Valery Nikolayevich Ivanov 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 after allegedly trying to recruit Australian Labor Party member David Combe....

.The National Library of Australia catalogue entry states: "by David Combe's wife, Meena Blesing".
"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".

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 the First Secretary for the USSR Embassy in Canberra, Valery Ivanov. Soon after the formation of the Hawke

Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

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.

The highly publicised events were investigated by the Hope Royal Commission into Australia's security and intelligence agencies of 1983-1984, which found that Combe had indeed been targeted by the Soviets. Although targeted, there was no proof of intelligence breaches, nor security threats to the country. There were several cartoons that attribute the commission as being a kangaroo court.

Trade commissioner

He was Australia's senior trade commissioner in Western Canada

Western Canada

Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...

from 1985 to 1989, and in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

from 1990 to 1991.

Wine industry

Combe is credited with developing significant export business for Southcorp Wines from August 1991 to June 2000, during which time exports increased from $40 million annually to $300 million. Combe was Senior Vice President International and ran the European operations of Penfolds and Southcorp Wines during the rise of Australian Wines in the 1990s.

In the year 2000. he was named "Australia's Top Export Salesmen" by Overseas Trading magazine and was included in the "Twenty Five Most Influential Australians in Asia" list published by Business Asia magazine, 2000.

From March 2001 to November 2003, he joined Western Australian wine producer Evans and Tate Limited as a non-executive director with a view to providing strategic input and guidance in an ambitious acquisition programme.

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

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".

Portrait

In 1983, Keith Looby

Keith Looby

Keith Looby, born Sydney. Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize in 1984 with a portrait of Max Gillies. He won the Sulman Prize in 1974 with a genre painting - Still Life and Comfy II. He was Canberra Artist of the Year in 1992. Was married to Helen Beresford, sister of Australian...

painted Combe's portrait. The portrait was an unsuccessful entry in the Archibald Prize

Archibald Prize

The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...

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. In 1998, Combe donated his portrait to the collection of the National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery (Australia)

The National Portrait Gallery of Australia is a collection of portraits of prominent Australians that are important in their field of endeavour or whose life sets them apart as an individual of long-term public interest...

in Canberra, "through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program".