John Moten

John Moten
8th Director-General of Security
In office
8 October 1988 – 10 January 1992
Prime MinisterBob Hawke
Paul Keating
Preceded byAlan Wrigley
Succeeded byDavid Sadleir
Personal details
Born
John Michael Moten

(1933-12-08)8 December 1933
Adelaide, South Australia
Died9 July 2022(2022-07-09) (aged 88)
Canberra, ACT
RelationsMurray Moten (father)
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
University of Sydney
OccupationAeronautical engineer

John Michael Moten (8 December 1933[1] – 9 July 2022) was an Australian aeronautical engineer.

From 1988 to 1992, he was the Director-General of Security, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).[2] He was the son of Brigadier Murray Moten, a senior Australian Army officer.[3]

Moten was not a career intelligence officer. He had worked at the Department of Defence, where he was Deputy Secretary of the Strategic and Intelligence Section when he accepted the position of ASIO's Director-General. He retired in January 1992, three years into his five-year term. The reasons for his early retirement were never given.[4]

He died on 9 July 2022, aged 94.[5]

  1. ^ Who's Who in Australia. Colorgravure Publications. 2006.
  2. ^ Biographical cuttings on John Michael Moten, aeronautical engineer appointed Director-General of ASIO 1988, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals, National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ R. Sutton, 'Moten, Murray John (1899–1953)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, Melbourne University Press, 2000, pp 429–430
  4. ^ Cain, Frank (1993). "The right to know: ASIO, historians and the Australian Parliament". Intelligence and National Security. 8 (1). Taylor & Francis: 87–101. doi:10.1080/02684529308432193.
  5. ^ Canberra Times, Obituaries