The Australian War Memorial remains one of Australia’s most cherished national institutions, attracting a million visitors, mainly tourists, to Canberra each year.

A repost from 19 September 2025.

Those who follow the institution’s fortunes are variously saddened and outraged at its latest own-goal, diminishing its tarnished reputation in refusing to face the reality of Australia’s military experience.

In recent years, it has been plagued by a succession of scandals, beginning with the controversial, expensive, unnecessary and mismanaged expansion, the legacy of Brendan Nelson (director 2013-18). Its dogged defence of disgraced VC Ben Roberts-Smith (even as the evidence mounted that he had been responsible for the deaths of three unarmed civilians in Afghanistan), now pondering whether it can acknowledge his actions honestly in its museum galleries. The Memorial has struggled to justify its unhealthy association with arms makers, and has endured embarrassing gaffes by members of its Council. Most significantly, whether and how it is to recognise the fact of frontier conflict (the Australian Wars) remains unresolved. The Memorial’s management has failed to honestly acknowledge, accept and act on the facts of our changing understanding of Australian military history.

Now, through leaked internal documents, comes the revelation that a recommendation to award the Memorial’s Les Carlyon prize to Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes, Chris Masters’s expose of Ben Roberts-Smith, has been overturned by the Memorial’s management.

Some background. The Memorial commemorates the dead of the Defence Force and its precursors. This it accomplishes by maintaining the physical memorial, creating exhibition galleries and by fostering and supporting research into Australia’s military history. The Memorial is a Commonwealth statutory authority, governed by a Council reporting to the minister for Veterans’ Affairs and run by a........

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