Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I never like following the member for Banks when it is about legal matters in particular or about matters in relation to the Indigenous community or human rights because he always knows a lot more about these issues than I do. But, not to worry, I am joined by the minister at the table, the member for Moreton. I like following him because I always know more about things than he does. That is certainly my experience anyway and the experience of others, so they tell me.

I rise today to speak on a very important bill—the Defence Legislation Amendment Bill 2006. I support the amendment moved by the shadow minister for defence and congratulate him on his very thoughtful and thorough contribution to this debate. The military justice system exists to maintain discipline and to reinforce the chain of command in the Australian Defence Force. Australia’s military justice system has two distinct but interrelated elements: the discipline system and the administration system. They provide the framework for investigation and prosecution of offences committed under the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 and the maintenance of professional standards in the ADF and the investigation of certain occurrences, such as accidental deaths of ADF personnel.

In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the system conducted between 2003 and 2005, the then Chief of the Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove AC, MC, explained:

Establishing and maintaining a high standard of discipline in both peace and on operations is essential for effective day-to-day functioning of the ADF and is applicable to all members of the ADF.

He went on to say:

... the unique nature of ADF service demands a system that will work in both peace and war.

Without an effective military justice system, the ADF would not function. Due to the importance of this system to our defence personnel, I am honoured to speak on the Defence Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 today. I will be addressing the technicalities of the bill soon but, firstly, I want to briefly recount a part of Australian history that I believe is relevant to our discussion today—that is, the trial of Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant and its surrounding controversies.

Breaker Morant was a popular knockabout Australian character who found his way to the Boer War. Morant had immigrated to Australia in the early 1880s and settled in outback Queensland. Over the next 15 years, working in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, Morant made a name for himself as a ‘hard-drinking, womanising bush poet and gained renown as a fearless and expert horseman’. In 1899 he volunteered for military service and in 1900 was sent to Transvaal in South Africa as part of the South Australian Mounted Rifles. But in early 1902 he found himself on trial. The main charges were that between July and September 1901 Morant had incited his co-accused, Lieutenants Hancock and Witton, and others under his command to murder some 20 people, including the Boer commando Visser, a group of eight Boer POWs, Boer civilian adults and children, and the German missionary, Hesse.

Morant’s involvement in the deaths of Visser and the eight POWs has never been in dispute, since he openly declared during the trial that he had ordered them to be summarily executed. However, throughout the proceedings he staunchly maintained that he had done so because of his superiors’ orders to take no prisoners and because of the provocation occasioned by the killing and post-mortem mutilation of one of his closest friends. He also insisted that he had been certain that those he executed had been members of the party that had killed Hunt and defiled his body.

I do not want to address any more of the actual circumstances surrounding the case. It is the validity of the court martial that remains the main issue. The disappearance of the original trial records has prevented a full investigation of this matter for over a century. In their absence, historians have been forced to rely primarily on Witton’s memoir, which is very detailed but must necessarily be considered a biased view. The early stages of the trial were, as noted above, comparatively relaxed affairs by military standards. The accused were not kept under close arrest and were often allowed to move about the fort and the town. On one occasion, Witton was even escorted to a cricket match—much to the surprise of the court president, who was also in attendance. Unknown to Witton, the judge had that very day secretly sentenced him to death by firing squad.

In both the Visser and the eight Boers matters, none of the accused was informed of either the verdicts or the sentences until well after the trial. There was apparently no attempt to conduct any form of forensic examination of the bodies of the alleged victims and all the so-called evidence about the killings was verbal testimony collected long after the events. The vast bulk of this testimony was uncorroborated or hearsay evidence obtained during the preceding court of inquiry, much of it apparently gathered from disaffected former carbineers who, if Witton is to be believed, harboured considerable animosity towards Morant and Hancock.

The last phase, the hearing of the Hesse matter, was in stark contrast to the relatively relaxed atmosphere of the earlier phases. Suddenly and without warning, just after the conclusion of the eight Boers matter, the accused were placed under close arrest, put in irons, removed from Pietersburg and taken under heavy guard to Pretoria. This final phase was also conducted in camera, whereas the earlier parts of the trial, in Pietersburg, had been open to the public.

The outcome of the trial was a foregone conclusion. Morant and Hancock were found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. Witton was also sentenced to death but this was commuted to life imprisonment by Kitchener. After signing Morant’s and Hancock’s death warrants, Kitchener disappeared on tour, thus removing himself from any attempt to secure their reprieve. Shortly after 5 am on 21 February 1902, Lieutenants Harry Morant and Peter Hancock were led out to be executed by firing squad. Both men refused to be blindfolded. Morant gave his cigarette case to the squad leader and his famous last words were:

Shoot straight, you bastards. Don’t make a mess of it.

It was not until a month later that the news reached Australia of the trial and death of Breaker Morant.

Apart from my love of Australian military history, why bother recounting this story today?

See this speech in context