ADF warns troops drinking alcohol on deployment won’t be tolerated

Deployed personnel will need to complete a risk assessment 21 days prior to a national holiday to seek permission to consume two celebratory drinks under a new defence directive.

Victoria Cross recipent Ben Roberts-Smith at the SAS bar known as The Fat Ladies Arms in Afghanistan, where troops were pictured drinking from a dead Afghan's prosthetic leg.

Defence has issued a new directive warning alcohol consumption will not be tolerated on operations or exercises, after drinking by troops in Afghanistan was linked to cultural failings that allowed war crimes to be committed and covered up.

The directive says deployed ADF personnel are banned from drinking alcohol, reiterating previous advice that was flouted by the nation’s most elite troops, with the tacit approval of commanders, during Australia’s longest war.

Approval may be provided for personnel on “non-warlike ­operations” to consume a maximum of two alcoholic beverages each on national holidays such as Australia Day, Anzac Day and Christmas Day, but only if a risk assessment is submitted 21 days prior to the event.

The notice was issued in ­response to the Brereton war crimes report, which found widespread drinking by Special Air Service personnel in Afghanistan was evidence of lax standards within the regiment, whose members were accused of 39 murders.

The Chief of Joint Operations’ directive, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, warns consumption of alcohol on “warlike operations” will not be approved except in the case of communal wine used for religious services.

Operational commanders are directed to enforce the rules through random and targeted breath testing.

“A member who fails to maintain a zero (blood alcohol count) through random testing will have administrative action commenced against them resulting in potential removal from the operation, exercise or activity,” the directive says.

It says ADF members who ­refuse to undergo alcohol testing must be “removed from the workplace immediately and be banned from access to weapons and ammunition, and access to vehicles”.

Roberts-Smith at an SAS costume party on deployment in Afghanistan.

The directive comes ahead of a decision later this week on a defamation case brought by Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, against Nine newspapers, over reports accusing him of war crimes.

In a separate process, the Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell is pushing to strip honours and awards from officers who held command positions in Afghanistan when war crimes were alleged to have taken place.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie is demanding General Campbell – who led Australian forces in Afghanistan in 2011 – “lead by example and hand back his own medals”.

Justice Paul Brereton’s November 2020 report for the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force revealed the existence of a pub at the SAS base in Afghanistan, dubbed “The Fat Lady’s Arms”.

Photos show drunken dress-up parties at the venue, and soldiers drinking there from a prosthetic leg souvenired from a dead Afghan. While alcohol was supposed to be banned, one soldier told Justice Brereton the venue was a place “where we can do certain stuff but we’re not going to get caught and it’s not going to be regarded as misconduct because that’s who we are and that’s what we do”.

Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell.

“While alcohol on deployments was linked to ‘risky or unacceptable behaviours’, it is ‘difficult to conclude that almost everyone in the (Special Operations Command) chain of command was not aware of this’,” Justice Brereton’s report said.

He said the pub’s existence was the result of “organisational blindness”, and showed “ethical leadership was compromised”.

A former 2nd Commando Regiment member told The Australian he and fellow soldiers were “incensed” at the level of drinking and partying by SAS counterparts.

“We’d be out there fighting on week-long patrols, and we’d get back with just enough time to clean our gear before going out again,” the commando said.

“Meanwhile, these guys were having dress-up parties. It was the worst-kept secret, but I don‘t think anyone really realised the full extent of it.”

General Campbell, who was based in the United Arab Emirates in 2011 but visited Afghanistan 34 times that year, told a Senate estimates hearing in 2021 he had no idea SAS personnel had an on-base pub.

SAS Association national president Martin Hamilton-Smith said the planned administrative action should be shelved until criminal charges were dealt with. “In our opinion this CDF has mishandled the yet-to-be-proven war crime allegations from the outset,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.