Office of National Intelligence boss Nick Warner is a former director-general of Australia's foreign intelligence agency ASIS, secretary of the Defence department and a senior adviser to former prime minister John Howard.

Overseas, he served as special coordinator of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, high commissioner to Papua New Guinea and ambassador to Iran.

"His expertise, his experience, his knowledge of these areas is, I would say, without peer and we have been well-served by him," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

Australian Associated Press