Ben Roberts-Smith: PMs warns of rushing to judgment

The four PMs who oversaw Australia’s role in the Afghanistan war have backed the SAS as secret inquiry considers charges.

Afghanistan veteran Ben Roberts-Smith with his wife Emma on the Sunshine Coast. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The four prime ministers who oversaw Australia’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan have thrown their support behind the Special Air Services Regiment, amid mounting expectations that a secretive inquiry into alleged war crimes is set to recommend charges against some ex-Diggers.

John Howard lashed out at small sections of the community which he accused of wanting to demonise the military, while Tony Abbott urged prosecutors to stay their hand, should credible examples of war crimes be uncovered.

Kevin Rudd said Australians who watched the war from the “comfort of their livings rooms’’ were oblivious to the savagery of the Afghan conflict, while his Labor successor Julia Gillard spoke of the military’s “profound sense of service and sacrifice’’.

The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence is conducting a wide-ranging “scoping’’ inquiry into persistent allegations that some members of the SASR and the Commandos committed war crimes, including murder, during the decade-long fight in Afghanistan. The inquiry is being conducted by NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton and has been running since 2016. The inquiry’s terms of reference are classified.

The Defence Force privately expects some allegations will be deemed credible, paving the way for potential criminal prosecution of some ADF members by the Australian Federal Police.

The prime ministers spoke to The Weekend Australian last week, before Fairfax Media published new claims against Victoria Cross winner and SAS veteran Ben Roberts-Smith accusing him of bullying, intimidation and the mistreatment of unarmed ­Afghans while he was with the regiment. The report also accused him of domestic violence.

Mr Roberts-Smith has categorically denied all allegations.

Mr Abbott, the most hawkish of the four former prime ministers contacted by The Weekend Australian, said Australians should be “very, very slow to judge’’ the SASR, given the work they were asked to do.

“I would be very reluctant to judge soldiers operating in the heat of combat under the fog of war by the same standards that we would judge civilians operating in the ordinary circumstances of Australian life,’’ Mr Abbott said. “The important thing here is if mistakes have been made is to take a remedial approach rather than a punitive approach.’’

Mr Howard said that while military justice had to be respected, there was a small section of the community “ready to jump on any breaches by the military’’.

“Some of these people cannot accept the incredible burden carried by our military forces,’’ Mr Howard said. “I support the application of military law, of course. I just ask that people bear in mind the very heavy strain under which our military operates.’’

Mr Rudd said he was unaware of the details surrounding the ­allegations and that the facts needed to be established via credible, independent mechanisms “with no rush to judgment’’.

“Our forces were operating under extremely trying circumstances, of which Australian civilians would have little if any idea from the comfort of their living rooms, against an enemy responsible for nurturing al-Qa’ida terrorists who murdered thousands of innocents on September 11,’’ Mr Rudd said. “As a nation, however, we are still subject to the laws of war. There is a reason for this. It’s to ensure Australian forces and civilians are accorded protections under the same laws where those protections may be needed in the future.”

Ms Gillard said she did not want to comment while the Brereton inquiry was ongoing, but noted that as prime minister she had visited Afghanistan on a number of occasions. “I also ­attended the funerals of soldiers, who died in combat in that theatre of war. I carry with me to this day a profound sense of their service and sacrifice,’’ she said.

The Brereton inquiry will probe the existence of a supposedly toxic culture within the SASR which allegedly saw a small number of its operators engage in executions, dubious battlefield shootings and other breaches of the laws of armed conflict.

The inquiry is likely to examine what impact, if any, the special forces command structure had on regimental culture. It will also examine an oft-cited claim that the SASR was worked too hard during the Afghan conflict, with some operators doing up to 10 combat rotations.

Former defence minister Brendan Nelson, now director of the Australian War Memorial, agreed with that. He said that over the past 20 years Defence planners had shown an increasing tendency to present the government of the day with war-fighting options that offered the greatest impact with the least risk.

“That has fallen largely to the SAS and the Commandos and the supportive elements of the special operations command,’’ Dr Nelson told The Weekend Australian. “If the government of the day had a reasonable thought this would be a decade-long commitment I suspect there would have been scenarios other than the repeated use of the (Special Operations Task Group).”