The Australian defence force is taking too long to implement some of the cultural reforms sparked by the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry, an independent watchdog has warned.
Guardian Australia can reveal that the oversight panel led by the former intelligence inspector general Vivienne Thom has conveyed its concerns directly to the military top brass.
A report dated 7 November 2022 obtained under freedom of information laws shows the panel met the chief of the ADF, Gen Angus Campbell and the chief of the army, Lt Gen Simon Stuart, to appeal to them to act with “a sense of urgency”.
Training programs are taking too long to be updated, according to the panel’s latest report to the defence minister, Richard Marles. It also raises concerns over “failures of accountability”.
The revelations have prompted the Albanese government to reaffirm that it is committed to implementing the reforms.
Thom’s panel was originally appointed by the former defence minister Linda Reynolds in late 2020 to give the government and the public confidence that the Afghanistan inquiry led to lasting change.
A four-year-long inquiry by Maj Gen Paul Brereton 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.
While the criminal allegations are still being considered by the Office of the Special Investigator, Thom’s panel is required to update the defence minister on progress in implementing the broader cultural reforms four times a year.
In its most recent report to Marles in November, the panel raised concerns about the timeliness of implementing the Afghanistan inquiry reform plan.
It acknowledged that Campbell had written to all officers responsible for enacting the reforms on 19 September 2022 “to reinforce that they must maintain a focus on delivery, explore opportunities to deliver early, and avoid delays”.
But the report said the panel had met Campbell in late October and Stuart in mid-September “and reinforced our view that, although the reform program needs to be delivered in a thorough and considered manner, it also requires a sense of urgency”.
“We are also concerned more generally about the time taken for doctrine and policy reform to permeate through the training pipeline,” the panel told Marles, citing ethics as one of the areas for attention.
“The panel recommends a more forward leaning approach to Defence directing that training development teams (including in navy, army and air force) be given hard deadlines for updating course content.”
The panel said it had also used its meetings with Campbell and Stuart to discuss “the urgent need to determine a way forward for command accountability issues arising from the Brereton Report, including the review of individual honours and awards”.
“We understand that the pause placed on the review of individual honours and awards has now been lifted,” the report said.
But further observations and recommendations on this issue were largely redacted in the document.
“Defence has published several papers recently dealing with leadership training which strongly emphasise leadership accountability,” the report added.
“They are worthwhile as far as they go but they do not deal with enforcement and failures of accountability.”
Marles, who is also the deputy prime minister, has previously said he is “deeply committed” to the Brereton reforms, declaring that “history will judge us”.
When contacted for comment on the latest report, a spokesperson for Marles said: “The deputy prime minister continues to work through the recommendations of the Brereton report, including receiving regular updates and briefings from the Afghanistan inquiry panel.
“This remains a priority for the deputy prime minister. The Albanese government is committed to implementing the Brereton report.”
Defence was also approached for comment.
The report – covering the period August to October – also disclosed that defence was “currently working towards” providing Marles with updated advice on compensation issues soon.
Guardian Australia reported in early December that Marles had already received a number of briefings about compensation, more than two years after the Brereton inquiry found payments should be offered quickly to families of alleged victims to restore “Australia’s standing”.
The minister’s spokesperson said at the time that despite the complexities surrounding compensation “the government remains committed to implementing, to the extent that it can, the Brereton report”.
The previous Coalition government missed the original December 2021 deadline for a decision on how to approach the compensation issue.
Despite concerns about timeliness, the Thom panel’s most recent report noted some positive improvements, such as the efforts to reform the culture of “exceptionalism” within the SAS regiment.
The panel said it had been “apparent to us during a recent visit to Campbell Barracks that the regiment had a renewed focus on ‘humility’, as a counter-balancing central value”.
The panel members conveyed that view during a meeting with the special operations commander Australia on 17 August 2022, but then decided to conduct a further 17 confidential interviews to gauge “how cultural change across the Command is being experienced by external partners”.
These interviews included people in mid-seniority positions from Australian defence headquarters, headquarters joint operations command, army headquarters, strategy and intelligence group, and capability acquisition and sustainment group.
The findings were largely redacted, but included “areas of strength” and also “ongoing areas of concern”.
