In the wake of the Second World War and the realisation that the Soviet Union had set up extensive espionage networks around the world, Australia responded by establishing its own spy-hunting agency: ASIO. By the 1950s, its counterespionage activities were increasingly supplemented by attempts at counter-subversion – identifying individuals and organisations suspected of activities that threatened national security. In doing so, it crossed the boundary from being a professional agency that collected, evaluated and transmitted intelligence, to a sometimes politicised but always shadowy presence, monitoring not just communists but also peace activists, scientists, academics, journalists and writers.

About the speaker: Phillip Deery is Emeritus Professor of History at Victoria University, Melbourne. He has written over one hundred publications in the fields of communism, espionage, the Cold War and the labour movement. His previous books on the Cold War include Red Apple: Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York and the co-authored The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents, Third Edition.