Defence Chief Angus Campbell rolled over bid to strip Afghanistan medals

Defence Chief Angus Campbell has backed away from a pledge to strip meritorious service awards from 3000 Afghanistan veterans.

Amid public backlash over the Brereton war crimes’ recommendation to strip the citations from 3000 special forces veterans, Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared on Monday that “no decisions have been made on that”. Picture: Getty

Defence Chief Angus Campbell has backed away from a pledge to strip meritorious service awards from 3000 Afghanistan veterans to mark their “collective responsibility” for alleged war crimes, after he was publicly rolled by Scott Morrison.

General Campbell said more than a week ago when he released the Brereton war crimes report that he would write to the Governor-General asking him to revoke the Meritorious Unit Citation for special forces soldiers who served in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2013.

But, after the Prime Minister overruled the edict, the Chief of the Defence Force fell into line.

“No decisions have yet been made with regard to the appropriate options and approaches to ­implement the more than 140 recommendations, as the complexity and sensitivity of the issues outlined in the report will take extensive and considered deliberation,” General Campbell said in a statement.

In a press conference hours earlier, Mr Morrison — angered at Chinese propaganda over the Brereton report — made it clear he did not support General Campbell’s decision to strip soldiers of their meritorious service awards regardless of whether they had any knowledge of the 39 alleged murders of Afghan civilians and prisoners.

The Prime Minister said the government’s response to the Brereton war crimes report would “protect people, their innocence and their rights”, and ensure the actions of a small number of soldiers facing war crimes allegations “do not reflect on the many thousands of others who serve today and who have served before”.

“That is how we deal with these issues in Australia,” he said. “We deal with them according to the rule of law, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and in accordance with the administrative processes that ­operate within the Defence Force.”

Mr Morrison also noted Defence’s response to the Brereton inquiry was being supervised by the government’s new independent oversight panel, and signalled he would have the final say on the government’s response.

“As always, governors-general take advice of their prime ministers,” he said.

The government has been under pressure over the CDF’s ­decision to revoke the Meritorious Unit Citation when Defence is yet to identify any senior officers who will share accountability for crimes committed on their watch.

The families of soldiers killed in action had protested the decision, while a petition organised by special forces veterans to overturn the ruling attracted more than 55,000 signatures. General Campbell said on November 19 he accepted all 143 recommendations made by NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton in his report for the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force.

“Units live and fight as a team. The report acknowledges, therefore, that there is also a collective responsibility for what is alleged to have happened,” the CDF said. “With this in mind, I have ­accepted the Inspector-General’s recommendation and will write to the Governor-General requesting he revoke the Meritorious Unit Citation for special operations task groups who served in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2013.”

Senator Jacqui Lambie, a former army corporal, blasted General Campbell over the “heartbreaking order” in a profanity-laden statement on Monday. “If General Campbell has not felt the bitch-slap from all those millions of Australians out there, he needs to pull his head out of his arse,’’ Senator Lambie said.

Former commando officer Heston Russell, who established the petition against the citation’s removal, said he was heartened “to see common sense prevailing”.

The father of a commando killed by a Taliban rocket attack in ­Afghanistan told The Australian last week that if General Campbell wanted to revoke his son’s meritorious service award, he could ­“collect it himself from my son’s gravestone”.