First Australian Spymaster Speech for Sixty Years
By Andrew Ivey | Speeches
By Andrew Ivey | Speeches
First public speech by ASIS spymaster Nick Warner
Just like waiting for a bus, you wait for years for a spymaster speech to come along and then suddenly there are two speeches.
First we were treated to a speech by Jonathan Evans the spymaster at Britain’s domestic security agency MI5.
And today the Director General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), Nick Warner, gave a speech.
Mr Warner’s speech at the Lowy Institute for International Policy was the first public speech by anyone at the Canberra-based ASIS for 60 years.
Mr Warner, who’s been the Director General for 3 years, has been very quiet in those years. No speeches and no interviews.
In fact it’s only been 20 years since Australia’s foreign spying and intelligence agency was officially noted to exist. And even today Mr Warner is the only publicly recognised employee!
So his speech has been seized upon by Australia’s media. But if they were looking for juicy morsels of information, they were disappointed.
His speech was a way of marking 60 years of service. It paid tribute to the many agents who’ve worked at the agency and those working today. His speech made references to the work that ASIS conducts…counter people smuggling and counter-terrorism to name but two.
His tone was consistently measured and evenly paced. It was certainly a bit husky–the result of a cold that he noted near the beginning of his speech.
Should we expect more speeches from spymasters around the world? Perhaps so. There’s undoubtedly some concern with justifying public expenditure in straitened times. And spymasters and their organisations do draw from the public purse. So more speeches in all likelihood…but don’t expect too many revelations.
The Principal Trainer at training business Time to Market. Based in Oxford, I run presentation and public speaking training courses, coaching sessions and seminars throughout the UK. Andrew Ivey on Google+
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