Fifteen years ago, Ben Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award in the Australian honours system, for valour in battle. Today he is on remand in prison alongside domestic abusers and drug dealers, facing five counts of war crimes – murder.
When journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters broke the news of his arrest on Tuesday, it marked a significant development in a story that was first brought to the attention of the Australian public by the Herald eight years ago, when McKenzie and Masters revealed the Victoria Cross winner had allegedly been involved in war crimes during his service with the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2012.
Despite their meticulous reporting of allegations that Roberts-Smith executed or ordered subordinates to execute civilians and unarmed prisoners, the former soldier has had powerful backers who hailed him as a patriot, attacked us for reporting the allegations, and bankrolled his prolonged, multimillion-dollar defamation case (he lost the case, the appeal and his High Court bid).
The fallout from his arrest this week on an aircraft arriving from Brisbane airport – his towering frame flanked by police officers as he was escorted off his flight – has only widened the gulf between his cheer squad and those who not only believe in the importance of upholding international humanitarian law, but also understand that nobody, not even an Australian Victoria Cross winner, should be above the law (Roberts-Smith has always insisted he is innocent of the allegations).
Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart has long been one of Roberts-Smith’s most ardent admirers. She reflected the views of many on the right of politics, including One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, this week when she said our soldiers suffered to serve Australia and she found the criminal investigation “puzzling”. Even US billionaire Elon Musk weighed in on his social media platform X, saying the arrest “sounds insane”.
The theme of Roberts-Smith’s supporters is that war is tough for soldiers, and Australians should stop fussing over details and get behind them. At best, this is a worrying misunderstanding of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), in which every Australian soldier is trained. LOAC’s aim is to reduce the suffering of war. It stipulates that civilians and prisoners – people Roberts-Smith is alleged to have killed, or ordered to be killed – must be protected.
There was a time when both the left and right of Australian politics would have regarded honour, restraint and moral character as essential to the ideal of a patriotic soldier. Not any more.
While it’s worrying that politicians and billionaires have abandoned this idea, it’s even more concerning for the Australian War Memorial to have done so. As historians pointed out to our reporters Clay Lucas and Nick Newling on Thursday, allowing Roberts-Smith’s medals and uniform to be displayed in the memorial’s Hall of Valour even now (albeit with a note about his criminal charges in a panel) undermines its commitment to historical truth. Leaving up the exhibit sends a message to the children filing through on their primary school pilgrimage that the memorial prizes battle heroics over integrity and ethics. The exhibit should be removed, at least until the criminal proceedings are finished.
We must remember, though, this saga involves soldiers who chose to break the SASR’s so-called code of silence to speak up about their comrade’s alleged war crimes. Their actions gave the victims’ families the comfort – after a very long wait – of seeing the alleged perpetrator being held to account, and they displayed moral courage that reflects the best of Australia’s defence force personnel.
It would have been easier for these soldiers to turn a blind eye. It would have been easier, too, for McKenzie and Masters – who have faced enormous blowback – to have overlooked the alleged cruelty of a supposed war hero, or for the Herald to have demurred from publishing their investigation. But The Sydney Morning Herald stands for integrity, accountability and courage. Our role is to tell our readers the truth, even if it’s a truth that some people do not want to hear.
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