A leader in the battle to keep the nation secure has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.
Nick Warner has been a key national security official since his days working for John Howard as the former prime minister's chief foreign affairs adviser.
Prior to that, he was Australia's ambassador in Iran for three years.
Since 2009, Mr Warner has led the ultra-secretive foreign spy agency the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.
The service is the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA and while it was created in 1952, it took consecutive governments 25 years to admit ASIS existed.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
For a man in such prominent national security posts, Mr Warner has remained remarkably free of scandal. In 2009, when he was the civilian chief of defence, Mr Warner faced accusations his department was spying on its own minister, Joel Fitzgibbon.
He quickly dismissed it as "a load of bunkum" and the internal inquiry that followed agreed with him. "I'm very pleased to have received this award," Mr Warner said in a brief statement.
"I've headed up ASIS for the past two years, and see this award in large part as recognition for the extraordinary - and by its nature unheralded - work that the men and women of ASIS do to help protect Australia and its national interests."
Mr Howard declared the appointment "thoroughly deserved". "He has been (a) great servant of Australia in many areas," Mr Howard told AAP.
"He gave expert advice when he served on my staff as international adviser."
