Defence goes over the top, but Scott Morrison finally delivers justice for Teddy Sheean

Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean, who was killed in action aboard the HMAS Armidale.

By insisting on yet another inquiry into the extent of Teddy Sheean’s bravery, Scott Morrison wasted tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars and caused unnecessary grief to some good people.

The awarding of a VC to the 18-year-old labourer’s son from rural northwest Tasmania was a no-brainer. It has become irresistible since July last year, when the independent Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal unanimously recommended it.

The tribunal highlighted new evidence of Sheean’s “pre-eminent act of valour and most conspicuous gallantry”, exposing errors in the original reports of the ordinary seaman’s conduct on the afternoon of December 1, 1942.

These included that Sheean was a gunner. He was in fact a gun-loader, but even so took it upon himself to fire on enemy aircraft, even as HMAS Armidale sank beneath him.

He was not already wounded when he strapped himself to the gun. In fact, he had reached a lifeboat unharmed, receiving his injuries only after deciding to return to his gun to try to stop his comrades in the water being strafed by Zero bullets.

The original report to the Admiralty didn’t even spell Sheean’s name right. Nor, just quietly, has the current Prime Minister’s office, on occasion.

Why didn’t the PM accept the tribunal report last year? Why another expert inquiry?

In large part because of vociferous resistance within the Defence Department. The top brass hates retrospectivity, admitting its blunders and giving the last say on gallantry awards to a tribunal. Anti-navy bias may also have been at play (Sheean is the navy’s first VC, to the army’s 96).

Chief of Defence Angus Campbell went over the top, advising the government in October that backing Sheean’s VC would damage the “integrity” of the awards system, lead to a “swath of additional claims” and even “damage Australia’s standing among other Commonwealth countries, and potentially with the Queen herself”.

Faced with such advice, it’s understandable the PM called in Brendan Nelson and some cooler heads. While unnecessary, Nelson’s findings, released on Monday, are unequivocal and well researched.

It’s taken almost 80 years, but justice has been done. That’s an enormous relief for Sheean’s family and sole surviving Armidale shipmate, 97-year-old Ray Leonard. Full recognition of Sheean’s selfless sacrifice can only be a good thing, too, for a nation seen squabbling over toilet paper.