E&OE
STARTS 3.06PM
JOURNALIST
So on Ben Roberts-Smith. It seems like everyone is not wanting to comment on the court case understandably, but I’ve just filed a story about the Australian War Memorial. They’re going to update the plaque on the display. There have been reports on people calling for that display to be removed.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
OK, I know where you’re going with this. And look, it would be inappropriate at this time for me to comment because there are matters that are going to court. But I will just say this: nobody who hasn’t worn a uniform, nobody who hasn’t been sent to war probably really understands what he has gone through, what he and his mates have gone through, and the complexities of war. He was sent to do a job, sent to serve his nation, called upon to do duty, as were others and the Afghanistan War – Australia’s longest conflict – was a war like no other. It wasn’t as if we were fighting in World War II and World War I and indeed other conflicts where our opponents, our enemies, wore uniforms. They did not. Many of them, of course, wore farmers’ garb and still had deadly weapons and used them against Australians.
The difficulty is they (Australian Diggers) were often sent out into very rugged terrain and difficult conditions. They had situations where they were fired upon and we fired back and eventually they might have overcome the enemy who then threw down their weapons. They couldn’t take them back as prisoners so they (had to) let them go. They (Afghans) ran over the next sand dune hills, picked up the next cache of weapons and began firing again. And they were very difficult circumstances and it’s all well and good for investigative journalists and media outlets with very deep pockets to pursue Australian servicemen and women, but mainly men, for things that happened in the fog of war, in the difficulty of war, in circumstances that are like no other here in Australia.
And I do feel for our veterans. I just wonder what this ultimately, and I know Ben Roberts-Smith is just one case, but what does this say to our ability to then recruit others to go and serve their nation? And let’s not forget the Parliament sends them, the Government actually, sends them to war to do a job and I know that’s what they’re trained for, I know they’re wired to kill and killing is not a nice process, it is not a good process, it is not an easy process. But in the context of war, it’s difficult for people who have not been in that situation to fully comprehend or understand it. And so I don’t want to serve judgement on Ben Roberts-Smith, I do not. And I think that until he is proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, and it does worry me that civilian processes then take over what is very much a military situation, it does, because where do we start and stop with this? Where do we start and stop with anybody who’s sent to do a job by Government? They do it, they get the nation’s highest honour for valour and they come back and then they have a civilian court tell them that they should not have done whatever they did. So, we’ll let the courts decide and that’s the due and proper process. But there is a lot about this that troubles me. It’s not just me. There’s a lot of veterans, there’s a lot of people in this country who really worry about the wider ramifications of what might occur as a result of what’s happened in this situation. And I might just leave it at that.
JOURNALIST
In terms of the War Memorial, they said they are just going to update the plaque to reflect that this has happened …
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, the wording would need to be very, very careful. They’d need to just say that he is facing allegations in a civilian court, that’s what they probably need to put, but they need to be very, very mindful and careful as to what this might trigger in other veterans and in other people who have served our nation at the highest level in the SAS. It’s all very troubling … we’re all entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.
JOURNALIST
And do you think if he is acquitted, should that be seen as vindicating him and everyone should stop suggesting that he’s done something off the bat just based on a defamation case not getting out?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, yes, I do because if you’re then acquitted by a court of law either in a jury situation or being heard by a magistrate or a judge or whatever the case might be, then you are acquitted. Full stop. End of story. Move on.
And then apologies need to be very much probably afforded to this person who at the moment deserves every commendation that he’s afforded at the moment. But, given the fact that there is a somewhat of a cloud over everything, I just hope that justice prevails, but I just think we need to be very, very careful because it’s going to be difficult for a court to determine everything given the fact that the allegations are being levelled at him, also the witnesses are either no longer here or well, let’s just face it, they were enemies of Australia at the time. Now, I was once asked should Australia compensate? We’ve got the Greens running around, I mean, the passive Greens who, if running this country was left to them, we would be overrun before breakfast time tomorrow, the gutless Greens. They are calling, I remember, calling for compensation. And I think we should pay compensation to all of those Afghans. Absolutely, 100 per cent we should pay compensation … (but only) after they pay compensation for the 43 soldiers whose lives they took, whose lives they took. Because it was their war. We went to improve their country and to make their country a better place and for a time we did. We gave girls a reason to be educated. We gave girls a reason to be afforded a life that was available for young women and females generally here in Australia. That’s now been taken away but we lost 43 of our best and bravest and brightest in the process over a conflict that took 20 years or more and we should not be kowtowing to the gutless Greens or anybody else who calls for compensation for what was a war for which Australia sent many of our finest young men and women into a conflict zone which most people would never ever understand because they weren’t there in the first place. It’s all well and good from the cowardice of a keyboard to make all sorts of accusations and say how things should have been when in the perfect world we all know that things should have been better, but we don’t live in a perfect world, we do not. And none of us know what they endured, none of us know what they went through, and we should hold judgement until proper authorities have their say.
ENDS 3.15PM