The Australian War Memorial has acknowledged the “gravity of the decision” in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case and says it is considering changes to the displays involving Australia’s most decorated living soldier.
The statement follows calls to remove Roberts-Smith’s uniform from public display at the memorial in Canberra.
The Australian War Memorial chair, Kim Beazley, said on Friday that the federal court ruling involved “a civil legal case” and was “one step in a longer process”.
“Collection items relating to Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, including his uniform, equipment, medals and associated art works, are on display in the memorial’s galleries,” he said in a statement on behalf of the Australian War Memorial council.
“We are considering carefully the additional content and context to be included in these displays.
“The memorial acknowledges Afghanistan veterans and their families who may be affected at this time.”
Beazley, a former Labor leader and defence minister, said the memorial “assists in remembering, interpreting and understanding Australia’s experience of war and its enduring impact”.
He said that included “the causes, conduct and consequences of war”.
In a landmark defamation case ruling on Thursday, Justice Anthony Besanko found that, on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in Darwan in 2012 before ordering a subordinate Australian soldier to shoot the injured man dead.
Besanko also found that in 2009 Roberts-Smith ordered the execution of an elderly man found hiding in a tunnel in a bombed-out compound codenamed “Whiskey 108”, as well as murdering a disabled man with a prosthetic leg during the same mission, using a light machine gun.
Roberts-Smith has always denied wrongdoing. He has not yet announced whether he plans to appeal against the ruling, but he has resigned from Seven West Media.
On Friday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, recommitted his government to acting on the Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces soldiers.
In his first public remarks after the defamation ruling, Albanese told reporters in Singapore that the judgment was “a determination of a civil proceeding between two parties”.
“It would be inappropriate to comment on the detail of that given the potential that is then there for future action that the government might be a party to,” Albanese said.
Albanese said the government would implement the Brereton inquiry recommendations “to the extent possible”. He described that commitment as “very important”.
“That is an area in which we have a responsibility and we have indicated very clearly that we would take up that responsibility,” the prime minister said.
Albanese also argued Australia’s international standing was “extraordinarily strong” and that included “the standing of our defence forces and our defence personnel”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, had earlier played down any effect of the ruling on Australia’s international reputation, saying: “The reputation of our country, of our soldiers, our diggers, is second to none.”
In an interview with Nine’s Today program, Dutton said the federal court ruling marked “a tough day for our country”.
Dutton, a former defence minister, said the vast majority of Australians held the SAS and the rest of the Australian defence force “in the highest regard”. He predicted the defamation case would be subject to an appeal.
“There has been a lot of speculation, and rightly so, about the recurring tours people went to in Afghanistan. That doesn’t excuse somebody operating outside the law,” Dutton said.
The Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, praised “the ethics and conduct of those SAS soldiers who have caused these reviews [and] spoken out publicly”.
“And as tragic as the final circumstances we see in Afghanistan are, and as reprehensible as any war crimes would be, that there is much for us to be proud of in terms of the work of our defence forces,” Birmingham told ABC Radio National on Friday.
The Greens described the defamation judgment as “an important win for fearless journalism in the public interest”.
The party’s defence and justice spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said on Thursday: “If this judgment stands, the first step in correcting the official record is for the Australian War Memorial to immediately remove Ben Roberts-Smith’s uniform from public display and to begin telling the entire truth of Australia’s involvement in that brutal war.
“This is not justice for the families who lost loved ones or for the communities that have been brutalised by war crimes, but it takes us a step closer.”
