PM cops friendly fire on VC snub

The Prime Minister is under mounting pressure, including from his own side of politics, to overturn an apparently flawed decision to deny World War II hero Teddy Sheean a Victoria Cross.

Teddy Sheean returned to the sinking HMAS Armidale from a lifeboat so he could fire a gun at Japanese aircraft strafing his comrades in the water. The Tasmanian shot down at least one aircraft, before dying at his gun.

The Prime Minister is under mounting pressure, including from his own side of politics, to overturn an allegedly flawed decision to deny World War II hero Teddy Sheean a Victoria Cross.

On Tuesday, Sheean’s family was joined by the Tasmanian Liberal government and a growing number of federal Liberal backbenchers in demanding a rethink of the snub.

Teddy Sheean

The mounting campaign followed revelations in The Australian that the Defence Awards tribunal chief believed Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ justification for denying the VC was deeply flawed and that she had “misled” the Senate.

Mr Sheean’s nephew, Garry Ivory, told The Australian Scott Morrison should order a rethink of the decision. “Why did the government put this tribunal together to look at Teddy’s case on its merits, have the tribunal come back with a positive recommendation and then ignore the recommendation?” Mr Ivory said.

“According to the tribunal chairman’s letter, the government decision has not been done properly. That makes me very angry.”

The Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal last year unanimously recommended Sheean receive the VC. It accepted new evidence revealing errors in the British Admiralty’s original consideration of the matter, concluding it had “understated Sheean’s actions”.

In 1942, the 18-year-old ordinary seaman Sheean returned to the sinking HMAS Armidale from the relative safety of a lifeboat so that he could fire a gun at Japanese aircraft strafing his comrades in the water. The Tasmanian shot down at least one aircraft, before dying at his gun.

Garry Ivory, nephew of Teddy Sheean. Picture: Patrick Gee

Mr Ivory said Senator Reynolds’ dismissal of this evidence seemed like an attack on the survivors and witnesses whose evidence was accepted by the tribunal. “To me it’s virtually saying these people are all liars,” he said.

On Monday, tribunal chair Mark Sullivan took the unprecedented step of writing to Senator Reynolds to inform her that her reasons for rejecting the tribunal’s recommendation, as expressed to the Senate, were false or misleading, and had thrown all VC deliberations into doubt.

Senator Reynolds last week told the Senate the tribunal process was a review of a 2013 Valour Inquiry, whereas in fact it was a new, “full merits-based review of Sheean’s actions”.

She was also wrong to say VCs could only be awarded if there was compelling new evidence or manifest injustice, leaving aside the fact that such evidence had in fact been presented and accepted by the tribunal in Sheean’s case.

Tasmanian federal Liberal backbenchers are firmly backing the call for a rethink on the back of Senator Reynolds’ blunders, as is the federal opposition and the state Liberal government.

“There is an opportunity now for the (federal) government to review the process, to reverse the denial of natural justice for Teddy, his family and the veterans,” said Tasmanian Veteran Affairs Minister Guy Barnett.

Senator Reynolds on Monday night rejected “any assertion” she had misled the Senate but admitted misstating the nature of the 2019 review.

“I have written to the president of the Senate seeking to correct the record accordingly,” she said.

Mr Morrison did not respond, but Defence confirmed it did not support the tribunal’s recommendations, believing its review “presented no compelling new evidence nor any evidence of manifest injustice”.