Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I'll read a letter from a constituent, a special forces veteran who chose to leave the Australian Defence Force after seeing Defence leadership callously throwing soldiers under the bus. It's a long letter, a clear and scathing indictment of Defence's supposed leaders. Here's the letter:

Dear Senator Roberts

On the 19th of November 2020 a certain number of SASR soldiers were accused of having a toxic culture with the release of the Brereton report.

This was a sound bite Chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell, AO DSC, repeated to the world. He accused Australian special forces non-commissioned officers of attempting to fuse excellence with Ego, Elitism and Entitlement.

The Brereton report, written by General Campbell's subordinate, absolved successive defence force leaders of anything other than 'moral responsibility', including the CDF.

It wasn't written in the report, but the message was loud and clear: there was another "E" in the equation. That of Exemption, Exemption for defence force senior leaders.

The Inspector General Australian Defence Force investigation and media campaign was clearly endorsed by ADF leadership.

In contrast, we have seen the lower ranks of those who served Australia in the Special Operations Task Force/Group in Afghanistan systemically abused, disempowered, marginalised and their valuable service denigrated.

Many of these men and women have since medically discharged due to poor mental health caused not only by aspects of their active service, but more damagingly, their treatment by defence and the media on returning home.

Treatment akin to that of a bygone era.

We have seen ADF leaders recuse themselves from command responsibility and the very laws and standards established after World War 2.

The Yamashita standard saw the Allies demand a Japanese General be hung for crimes committed by his soldiers.

Now, after losing our war, and in the hope of avoiding scrutiny from the International Criminal Court for their failures, it is OUR military leadership who demand their soldiers who fought under their command be punished while they refuse to accept anything other than meaningless 'moral responsibility.

During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the combined total cost to the Australian taxpayer was approximately $13.5 billion.

During that same time frame Australian soldiers fought with substandard and rented ISR, Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance equipment.

They had no integrated close air support and borrowed US helicopters.

Both Government and Defence 'procurement specialists' wasted three times the cost of both wars on failed and failing procurements.

Now, we see the failed MRH-90 Taipan helicopter procurement feature in the tragic loss of life, devastating defence families and the serving community.

We have seen veterans abandoned by defence and given no choice but to defend themselves in court without financial, legal, moral, or any other form of support from the same leaders they once served.

This situation demonstrates complete disregard for those who loyally fought the wars of our generation and of the families who supported them.

This ongoing treatment by defence leadership is yet another failure in their duty of care to the people they proclaim to value.

Leadership then took their disregard a step further giving tacit approval to journalists by failing to correct the lies and fabrications they published.

We saw the CDF and his service chiefs demand that senators' questions in relation to the failure of the MRH90 helicopter be considered and respectful due to the families impacted by loss.

This is a stance in complete contradiction to his grandstanding on the release of the Brereton Report, an uncaring act ignorant of the thousands of families impacted, and without consideration of the accuracy of the unproven and untested allegations, or of jurisprudence.

We saw a victim falsely labelled a perpetrator by the cold and dispassionate Royal Australian Airforce chief.

When offered the chance to set right the incorrect and damaging slur, the chief instead doubled down on his untrue statement with impunity.

This further damages all victims in defence, while simultaneously highlighting to Australia the class distinction between an out of touch but untouchable leadership, and those they supposedly lead.

We have seen defence leadership use national security as an excuse to cover their lies, mistruths, and omissions.

And we have seen how the same leaders hide behind the 'in consideration of the impact on families' excuse, selfishly treating grieving families as human shields to protect their reputations.

These families are strong families, they have supported loved ones through their years of service to this country, they don't need protection, they need the truth.

And now, we have seen elected senators voicing the concerns of their constituents and veterans, be labelled as divisive and bullied by the leader of Australia's Military.

If a lower ranked service member had publicly acted in the same way the CDF did at Senate Estimates, they would likely be charged with prejudicial conduct.

If the civilian overseers, the elected senators responsible for scrutinising defence force activities and spending, are not immune from the wrath of our Defence force leaders, is there anyone in Canberra able to hold them to account?

People do not leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses. Defence has been pushing woke agendas to appease minorities leading to so many poorly conceived and implemented reforms.

Furthermore, due to the defence leadership's damaging use of the media to denigrate its veterans whilst recusing themselves, they have sidelined and denigrated ADF's best assets, its people, and they are leaving in droves.

This devastating recruitment and retention crisis is weakening Australia's defence capability and national security, the very thing our leaders say they are protecting.

This exodus of people from the ADF creates a vacuum that will take years to replace. These men and women are patriots; they are not leaving defence due to the promise of better-paid jobs.

They are leaving because they are not valued and because of the incompetence, failures, double standards, blame-shifting, and lack of support from defence leaders.

What has been the leadership's answer to the current recruitment and retention crisis?

To appoint yet another general to investigate why those who did, and those who normally would serve our great nation, no longer wish to do so.

It's a weak, box-ticking exercise to avoid leadership accountability and fails to resolve the issues.

To Defence leadership, I say, if your medals are so important to you, keep them, and take ours back; there are more pressing items on the agenda.

Over two decades, incompetence in a Defence hierarchy more intent on accolades, awards, and power, has mismanaged Australia's defence force into its weakest ever position, and done so at a time when the world is in its most volatile and dangerous state since World War 2.

These leaders leave us poorly defended, and solely reliant on another nation with a dubious track record for supporting its allies in war.

Those of us who have been to war, who have been 'in action', don't relish another one, especially one fought at home, that require our children to fight.

On releasing the IGADF Brereton report into war crimes allegations, Angus Campbell was reporting as saying, "We are a nation that stands up when something goes wrong and deals with it and that is what I intend to do."

Well, as a concerned special forces veteran and father of Australian sons, this is me standing up, hoping someone in government will deal with this crisis.

Or am I right with the final E? Exemption: Are our Defence Force leaders truly exempt from their failures and above international and domestic laws?

The sorely needed Royal Commission into veteran suicides is a direct reflection of the poor leadership that has mismanaged defence over decades.

A Royal Commission into ADF leadership, specifically the failures in leadership during the Afghanistan war, and subsequent to it, is now imperative to ensure the same failures are not repeated. The Government fails the nation if it does not.

Signed: A concerned father and ADF Veteran.

Name and address supplied.

Anyone who hears the letter I just read into the Senate Hansard record will understand why many soldiers, veterans and senators, including me, have called for the Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, to be fired. There are too many examples of hypocrisy, failure and incompetence from Defence leadership to list them all in one letter or one speech. Get rid of every single general who isn't completely focused on making sure our Defence Force is as capable and lethal as possible. The safety and sovereignty of the entire nation require it.

The state of the Defence Force is the fault of many successive governments and shiny generals, yet the responsibility for the current state of Defence must lie with the current head of the organisation, and that is General Angus Campbell. The Defence Force is going backwards—literally, when it comes to headcount—and the Special Air Service Regiment is facing an unprecedented capability crisis. One Nation believes warriors should be welcome in our military. We don't need to spend time making sure drones are gender neutral. How about we just buy enough drones to defend ourselves? Spend money on ammo for our defence personnel to train with, not more gender advisers. Give medals to the heroes who show bravery in combat, not the bureaucrats who sit in air conditioning and shine their arse for half the war. The safety and sovereignty of our entire nation require that our ADF, the Australian Defence Force, starting at the top, tell the truth and be held accountable.