Former Defence Force chief Angus Campbell and other leading military figures are facing pressure to surrender their military honours after more junior Afghanistan war commanders were stripped of their medals for alleged war crimes that occurred under their watch.
Defence Minister Richard Marles announced last week that he had revoked the medals of up to nine officers who served in command positions in Afghanistan, taking up the key remaining recommendation of the landmark Brereton inquiry.
Former Defence Force chief Angus Campbell has said he did not receive any reports of wrongdoing or alleged war crimes during his time as the commander of Australian forces in the Middle East. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
That decision has sparked renewed debate about the chain of military command responsibility and whether those who served in more senior leadership roles should also face some form of punishment for the alleged 39 murders of Afghan civilians by Australian Defence Force personnel identified by former NSW Court of Appeal judge Paul Brereton’s inquiry.
Samantha Crompvoets, the sociologist whose work triggered the Brereton inquiry, said she would like to see Campbell hand back the Distinguished Service Cross awarded for his time as commander of Australian forces in the Middle East as an act of leadership accountability.
Crompvoets, an expert on organisational culture, was commissioned by the Defence Department in 2015 to produce a report that led to military personnel disclosing claims of unlawful behaviour including alleged war crimes.
She said Marles’ decision to strip military honours from a small number of commanding officers, while reflecting Brereton’s recommendations, was the “bare minimum” that could be expected from the government.
Samantha Crompvoets said removing medals from a small number of military commanders was the “bare minimum” that could be expected. Credit: Danielle Smith
“It’s not much of a statement,” she said of last week’s medals decision.
Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, a former army captain who served three tours in Afghanistan, said Marles’ revocation of some medals “acknowledges that commanders bear responsibility for the successes and failures of their team; that indifference to bad behaviour is not an attribute of distinguished leadership”.
“However, moral accountability demands more,” he said.
“Now is the time for some senior officers to consider returning their leadership awards, too.
“To do so publicly would go a long way to healing a divisive wound and allow a new generation to move on.”
This masthead revealed last year that Campbell offered to return a Distinguished Service Cross awarded to him for his stewardship as commander of Middle East Operations in 2011 but was knocked back by the Morrison government.
While stressing that Campbell and other military leaders were not directly responsible for wrongdoing in Afghanistan, Wolahan said many veterans would applaud the former Defence chief for publicly surrendering his medal as a principled act of leadership accountability.
Comment was sought from Campbell, who stepped down from his role as Defence Force chief in July, via the Department of Defence.
Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, who served in Afghanistan, has called for more accountability from senior military leaders.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Campbell told Senate estimates hearings last year he had not received any reports of wrongdoing or alleged war crimes during his time as the commander of Australian forces in the Middle East.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, who served as a troop commander in Afghanistan with the Special Air Service, told parliament last week that “those in the chain of command who saw the post-mission slide decks with the kill counts and pictures of dead individuals had an obligation to ask questions. From Tarin Kowt to Kabul to Kandahar to Dubai to Canberra”.
“An earlier intervention by our political and strategic leadership may have avoided much of the pain that people have experienced in Afghanistan, and through this lengthy process,” Hastie said.
“Leadership matters, is my point.”
Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie last week accused Marles of “throwing our diggers under the bus” by revoking medals just days after the royal commission report into veteran suicide.
“Yet, in his response, he still managed to forget one key thing: the accountability of the top brass,” she said.
Marles stressed that he sought to follow the Brereton report’s recommendations to the letter by removing medals from only a small number of task group, squadron and troop-level commanders.
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