Combe-Ivanov affair

David Combe (born 26 April 1943) was National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party, 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.

Harvey David Mathew Combe was born in 1943 in Adelaide, South Australia and was educated at Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide (B.A.). He became interested in politics at university and joined the ALP, partly through his friendship with Don Dunstan. (He has been Patron of the Don Dunstan Foundation since 2004.)

Combe was national secretary of the 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).

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. In November 1975, he was allegedly co-instigator, with Gough Whitlam and Bill Hartley, of an (unsuccessful) approach to Saddam Hussein's Iraq for a $US500,000 gift to help fund Labor's 1975 election campaign. Labor lost the 1975 election. 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, when the Labor Party was re-elected to office. Business perceived Combe as the most influential lobbyist then working in Canberra".

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