Phillip Deery: Spymasters and secret agents the birth of ASIO | ABC Conversations Podcast

Phillip Deery joins Richard Fidler on ABC Conversations

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In the wake of the Second World War, in an Australia vastly different to today, authorities uncovered a local Soviet spy ring.

At the time, the government was desperate to prove that Australia could be trusted with America’s military secrets, so it set up the Australian security agency — ASIO.

ASIO's job was to weed out communist spies and infiltrate subversive organisations.

Australian historian Phillip Deery has delved into ASIO's history, and looked at eight people whose lives were intimately caught up in the organisation's covert investigations.

He details the stories of the ordinary people recruited by ASIO to burrow into the Australian Communist Party, including an Adelaide widow named Anne Neill.

Further information |

Spies and Sparrows is published by MUP

Credits

Richard Fidler, Presenter

Carmel Rooney, Executive Producer

Nicola Harrison, Producer

Broadcast 31 Jan 2022

#podcast #conversations

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