Ben Roberts-Smith welcomed at Defence party days before Marles strips officers’ medals

War criminal Ben Roberts-Smith attended a Defence Force gala dinner to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Special Air Service Regiment, five days before the Albanese government stripped officers of their medals over command failures in Afghanistan that allowed soldiers to go rogue.

The disgraced Victoria Cross recipient’s attendance at the SAS “Wanderers Ball” sparked controversy within special forces’ ranks and came as the secretive Office of the Special Investigator stepped up its investigation into Roberts-Smith.

Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith in 2023. Credit: Rhett Wyman

Six sources with knowledge of aspects of the confidential OSI inquiry, including Defence officials, said the agency’s probe into Roberts-Smith had ballooned and now included several additional and equally egregious war crimes on top of the four executions the Federal Court ruled last year had involved the ex-soldier.

The OSI investigation is also examining whether Roberts-Smith committed other criminal offences, including those relating to his attempts to pervert justice and cover up war crimes.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the OSI was moving to charge Roberts-Smith, but investigations had been slowed by the need to quarantine evidence from the previous Brereton inquiry, which, because it had coercive questioning powers, had the potential to poison a future prosecution.

The federal police probe into Roberts-Smith collapsed last year after legal advice warned it may have been tainted by Brereton inquiry material.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the OSI have also engaged several leading senior barristers, including criminal law counsel Tim Game, SC, in a further indication the charging of Roberts-Smith is viewed as extremely likely – if delayed.

Multiple witnesses who testified about war crimes in the defamation case which Roberts-Smith lost in mid-2023 have also given the OSI statements, along with ex-soldiers who did not appear in court but hold potentially critical evidence.

Despite these investigations and Justice Anthony Besanko’s finding that he is a war criminal, the ex-soldier has retained his medals, including his Victoria Cross, Medal for Gallantry and Commendation for Distinguished Service.

Former NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton’s recommendations about stripping medals for command failures that led to war crimes prompted Defence Minister Richard Marles on Thursday to cancel distinguished service medals awarded to a number of current and former Defence officers.

Brereton did make a pointed finding about Roberts-Smith’s Medal for Gallantry, concluding that elements of the 2006 battle in which it was earned were “wilfully misreported” by his small SAS patrol.

Veteran SAS soldiers have also formally complained to senior Defence officials that Roberts-Smith’s Commendation for Distinguished Service was based on falsehoods about his leadership in 2012. Besanko concluded Roberts-Smith had, that year, kicked a prisoner off a cliff and ordered his execution.

While Marles defended on Thursday his decision to strip officer medals on the basis certain commanders failed to prevent soldiers under their watch committing atrocities, the long-standing failure to act against soldiers found to have carried out war crimes, like Roberts-Smith, has divided the veteran community.

Several special forces veterans told this masthead that Besanko’s civil court findings of war crimes should see Roberts-Smith stripped of at least some of his decorations, while other veterans argue that should only occur if he is convicted in a criminal trial.

Roberts-Smith and friend with a novelty drinking vessel made from the prosthetic leg of an Afghan man.

The absence of action left Roberts-Smith as the most decorated Afghan veteran at the SAS Diamond Jubilee ball on Saturday at Crown in Perth.

Billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes, who previously employed Roberts-Smith and funded his defamation action, was also a guest at the event.

One of the key speakers at the gala was an officer who was on the infamous 2009 mission in which Roberts-Smith executed a prisoner who had a prosthetic leg. There is no suggestion this officer knew of Roberts-Smith’s 2009 war crime when it was committed, but he, and other serving SAS personnel at the gala testified in Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation case.

“The fact that Defence allowed Roberts-Smith to come to such an important milestone event for the SASR, and the fact that Roberts-Smith felt entitled to rock up, shows how much work is yet to [be done] when it comes to cultural change,” said one Defence source.

Asked about the appropriateness of Roberts-Smith’s attendance at the gala, a Defence spokesperson said the event “enabled current and former Australian Defence Force members to share experiences and recognise this significant milestone in the regiment’s history”.

On Thursday, Defence Minister Marles cited privacy while declining to say how many officers have had their honours stripped, although he confirmed it was fewer than 10.

The government said the medal-stripping was one of 139 recommendations it had responded to and which were made as part of the Brereton report in November 2020. The report recommended sweeping reforms and found credible information that 19 soldiers were implicated in the unlawful executions of 39 prisoners and civilians.

Marles’ move, days after the release of the royal commission report into veteran suicide, has infuriated veterans groups who say the officers involved are being unfairly punished for others’ wrongdoing.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has stripped medals from senior commanding officers in the Afghan war.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A government source said the Brereton report did not deal with bravery medals such as the Victoria Cross, and that Marles’ response was limited to responding to that inquiry.

In 2023 then-Defence Force chief Angus Campbell wrote to a small group of Afghan veterans to inform them he had recommended the minister terminate their awards for distinguished and conspicuous service on warlike operations.

The government declined to identify the officers stripped of their medals, and has not revealed exactly how many were notified of the decision on Wednesday.

Marles told parliament on Thursday that the Brereton inquiry had examined “arguably the most serious allegations of Australian war crimes in our history”.

“This will always be a matter of national shame,” he said.

Marles said his decision to remove honours from some commanders was consistent with the Brereton report.

He paid tribute to the “sacred service” of the vast majority of Australian Defence personnel and commended those who told the truth about what happened in Afghanistan.

The Distinguished Service Cross was introduced in 1991 and is awarded for distinguished command and leadership in warlike operations.

“These people, whose names are not heralded, have changed our country for the better. Today, we honour them.”

The decision does not have any promotion consequences for those who have been stripped of their honours, and it is up to individuals to decide whether they want to surrender their physical medals.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said it was important for Australia to “learn from this tragic and bitter chapter in our military history”, but he did not directly address the stripping of medals from the former commanders.

“The Brereton report was painful as it unearthed painful truths about some of our conduct in the Afghan war,” Hastie, a former SAS soldier who served in Afghanistan, said. “Reputations both personal and institutional have been damaged.”

He choked with emotion in his response, saying “our soldiers must tell the truth, and those in leadership must seek it out. If both our soldiers and our leaders had done so, we might not be in this place today. But here we are, and it has been a tough reckoning.”

Marles’ decision does not affect Angus Campbell, who offered to return a Distinguished Service Cross awarded to him for his stewardship as commander of Middle East Operations but was knocked back by the Morrison government.

Australian SAS Association head Martin Hamilton-Smith accused Marles of “spitting at the feet of our Australian veterans”.

“This appears to be the first time in the history of Anzac that an Australian government has so betrayed the courage and sacrifice of the men they sent to fight and die in our country’s name,” he said.

RSL Australia president Greg Melick said no medals should be taken away until all investigations and potential trials have been completed.

“The RSL is aware of the significant strain this matter has placed on veterans, even those not involved in alleged incidents,” he said.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie, who served in the army for more than a decade, accused the government of “throwing our diggers under the bus”, telling Sky News that more senior Defence figures should be held accountable for any alleged wrongdoing in Afghanistan.

Lambie questioned why Marles had made the decision in the same week as tabling the final report from the royal commission into veteran suicide, saying she was concerned it could exacerbate veterans’ mental health issues.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told radio station 2GB that Marles had “abrogated responsibility here by letting this cloud hang for so long”, but did not say whether he supported the decision.

He said he was glad Marles had stuck by his 2021 decision not to strip 3000 members of the Special Operations Task Group of their meritorious unit citations.

In his 2020 report, Paul Brereton said that “it is difficult to see how any commander at the Special Operations Task Group, Squadron or Troop level, under whose command (or ‘on whose watch’) any substantiated incident referred to in this report occurred, could in good conscience retain a distinguished service award in respect of that command”.

The Distinguished Service Medal, introduced in 1991, is awarded for exceptional leadership in warlike operations. It entitles recipients to a nickel-silver medal with their details engraved upon it.

The government moved on another key recommendation of the Brereton inquiry in July by establishing a compensation scheme for the relatives of victims of alleged war crimes by Australian troops.

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