The chief of the Australian Defence Force, Gen Angus Campbell, says he reviewed his own performance commanding troops in Afghanistan as part of a newly completed review.
But Campbell brushed off concerns about an apparent conflict of interest, saying he had encouraged the defence minister, Richard Marles, to “seek independent views” before making any decision on the issue.
Campbell also earlier said he wasn’t afforded any “special circumstances” during a recently completed review into whether people should be stripped of medals or honours.
Campbell said he had not received any reports of wrongdoing or alleged war crimes during his time as the commander of Australian forces in the Middle East a decade ago.
“No, at no occasion were such reports provided to me,” Campbell told a Senate estimates committee hearing on Tuesday.
Campbell faced direct questioning after complaints by some members of the Australian special forces community about the potential revocation of medals from former commanders.
Campbell said a recently completed review looked into whether “a small number of persons who held command appointments” should lose medals or honours.
He handed his recommendations to Marles two weeks ago.
Campbell, who has a Distinguished Service Cross, has long been a lightning rod for criticism, including from the Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie who has raised claims of double standards.
Lambie asked Campbell “where is your command accountability” for the leadership of Joint Task Force 633, based in the United Arab Emirates, from January 2011 to January 2012. He visited Afghanistan regularly during this time.
Campbell said his approach was to review all rank levels and all time periods of service and then offer recommendations to Marles.
“As a member of all of the commanders who were in Afghanistan at different times and in different circumstances, I was included in that review,” Campbell said.
Lambie asked Campbell: “You were cleared but the rest were hung out to dry?”
Campbell did not give specifics. “Senator, the deputy prime minister has only recently received the materials that I have completed and it is for him to decide what position he takes on any of the individuals involved,” he said.
Later on Tuesday, Campbell confirmed that he was the one who had undertaken the review – a situation he described as “a uniquely particular circumstance”.
“As the commander of the Australian Defence Force, and looking at the question of command accountability, I am the authority to undertake that review,” Campbell said.
The Greens’ defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, asked during the Senate hearing whether there would be a “question mark about a conflict of interest over the whole process”.
Campbell said that was not the case because the review was focused on “the appropriateness of awards to certain commanders in certain periods of time in which Justice [Paul] Brereton found credible information of multiple allegations of unlawful killing”.
The ADF chief said Marles had the power to act if he “were to regard my considerations inadequate, inconsistent or self interested”.
Campbell said he did not feel he could appoint someone else from within the ADF to review his command accountability, because that idea “suffers from the reality that they are all under my command”.
“I did consider whether I might refer myself to some of my predecessors. But quite frankly, with the level of emotion and unintentional and also intentional disinformation about this issue, I quite frankly didn’t want to give them that pain,” Campbell said.
Shoebridge called on Marles to “clearly set out how he will deal with this conflict of interest to ensure faith in the integrity of the whole process”.
A spokesperson for Marles said he was “considering the recommendations and seeking advice as appropriate”.
During the hearing earlier, Lambie suggested that up to 24 people had received letters from Campbell in recent months “asking them to give their medals back”.
Campbell did not confirm the number, saying he wanted to protect “the integrity of the process and the privacy of the individuals”.
“I know that not only yourself but a range of other interested parties and the media are circling around this issue like great whites in a feeding frenzy,” Campbell told Lambie.
“I would wish to decline to tell you the number so as to mitigate the enthusiasm with which these people are, quite frankly, hunted down by particularly the media looking for spectacle.”
An inquiry by Brereton, completed in 2020, found “credible” information to implicate 25 current or former special forces personnel in the alleged unlawful killing of 39 individuals and the cruel treatment of two others in Afghanistan.
But Campbell said the current process related to the accountability of leaders for the performance of those under their command – an administrative issue that should not be “conflated” with criminal allegations.
