A picture of a soldier being humiliated in a prank by other soldiers has been branded as "gross" and "revolting" by one of the country's most respected art critics.
On the Australian War Memorial's website, "The People's Sit-up Challenge" depicts a blind-folded soldier on his back on the ground with another soldier squatting over him, naked apart from his boots.
The other soldiers laugh as the man on the ground appears about to make contact with the soldier above's bottom.
The painting was one of the finalists in a prize for art created by service personnel or former personnel.
"Five soldiers from the 5th Battalion in the Royal Australian Regiment participate in a well-known prank on exercise in Cultana training area, South Australia," the artist Steve Bostock said in the notes accompanying his entry to the competition.
But what may have been a "prank" in 2007 would today be fiercely condemned as "hazing", the practice of subjecting recruits to "cruel, abusive, humiliating, oppressive, demeaning, or harmful" treatment (as it's sometimes defined in the military).
A spokesperson for the Memorial said that the picture had been shortlisted for the prize based on its artistic merit.
"The artist has shown interesting illustrative talent. It's a particular perspective of his service and others who may have experienced something similar," she said.
But one prominent art critic takes a very different view.
"It's so confronting and revolting," John McDonald said.
"There's going to be a core of people wanting to defend this work and say how it's challenging, but really, it's just gross," the art critic who has written for prominent Australian and international publications for 30 years said.
"It's a pretty gross drawing which is coloured in. It's there to say something shocking about the army. It's everything which is totally at odds with what the War Memorial stands for.
"It makes you wonder about the role of the War Memorial. It's meant to be there to remember those who have fallen for our country.
"For some reason, the judges felt it was important to include it. In years gone by, it wouldn't have got to first base."
The judges included the director of the AWM, Matt Anderson, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Bree Pickering, and the chief of the Australian Defence Force, General Angus Campbell.
"The head of the defence force! What was he thinking?" John McDonald said.
Some veterans agreed with the critic, though without wanting to be identified.
But the Returned and Services League in the ACT wasn't so scathing.
ACT RSL president John King pointed out that it depicted an event in 2007, and the military, he felt, had changed since then.
"I wouldn't vote for it," he said, "but 2007 was a long time ago, and the ADF has got measures in place to stop that kind of thing. It's not something that occurs today."
The picture was entered for the Napier Waller Art Prize which is awarded every two years to current and former service personnel.
It hasn't won the prize itself but it remains in the running for the People's Choice to be chosen by anyone who goes to the War Memorial website and votes for it (after getting past a warning which says: "Viewer discretion is recommended").
But it was one of the few entries of the 148 to get onto the shortlist for the main prize.
It will not, however, be on display when the "17 highly commended works" go on display at Parliament House on Wednesday, and when the winner will be announced.
