Veterans call on Prime Minister to release official war histories

In short:

Australia's official histories of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have been written for several years but have not been cleared for publication by government.

The Australian War Memorial has joined the RSL and Legacy in calling for the release.

What's next:

Commemoration of Australia's involvement in Afghanistan — 25 years since the start of Operation Slipper — will be marked at a national commemorative service on Sunday.

The RSL, Legacy and the Australian War Memorial are calling for the release of long-overdue official histories covering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The appeal comes as ex-service organisations agree on a "concerted effort" to address the delay, described as having "negative consequences" for veterans.

Era-defining, comprehensive and exhaustive, the works are the nation's primary record of the conflicts fought in the public's name.

The works also allow veterans to understand the full picture of their individual service for the first time.

Iraq veteran Lisa lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of her service and said she had "carried the weight" of her actions for two decades.

"Did I put someone in danger because I made a wrong call? Did I jeopardise the safety of some of our sources inadvertently?", the former intelligence officer wondered.

"These are the questions I still ask myself 20 years later … I think knowing the official history will be really helpful for some of us to understand."

Commissioned in 2015 and completed in 2023, none of the four Middle East volumes has been published.

"I hear about this a lot from veterans; they're particularly concerned that the government's starting to try and hide something," RSL national president Peter Tinley said.

"I can only think it's bureaucratic mismanagement and a complete misunderstanding of the purpose of the history."

A former SAS Commander and Afghanistan veteran, Mr Tinley is now calling on the Albanese government to expedite the histories' release.

"Prime Minister, veterans of Australia are looking to you now, their families and the families of the fallen veterans," he said.

Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson agrees the works are overdue.

"Our veterans have waited long enough, and we owe it to them to have these on the public record as soon as possible," he told the ABC in a statement.

What are the histories?

The Australian War Memorial facilitates the writing of official histories and publishes the final work in a convention dating back to World War I.

The volumes are written with unique access to government, defence and intelligence documents as well as thousands of interviews with veterans.

The Middle East volumes were commissioned by the Abbott government in 2015 at a cost of almost $13 million.

Two volumes covering Australia's peacekeeping in East Timor were commissioned at the same time, the first of which is now publicly available.

The second has been cleared but not yet published.

Why haven't they been published?

Though written at arm's length from the government of the day, completed manuscripts must be cleared before publication.

Of the four Middle East volumes, one has been cleared, two remain with government, while the other is finished but has not been submitted.

Led by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, defence, diplomatic, intelligence and security departments also review the works.

"I can't say that I'm fully conscious of any reason why it should be proceeding so slowly," Australian War Memorial Council chair Kim Beazley said of the Middle East volumes.

"I guess in the case of a pressed bureaucracy, this doesn't necessarily rate very high in order of importance.

"Our view is that it's been too slow."

Documents released under freedom of information show the director of the Australian War Memorial questioned delays to the clearance process for the East Timor volumes at the highest levels of departmental bureaucracy in 2023.

The correspondence also indicates a "whole-of-government protocol" to complete security clearances within six months was not met.

'I don't see why it's such a secret'

Craig Stockings is a professor of history at UNSW Canberra and was appointed as official historian by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.

Last month, Professor Stockings raised the "remaining challenges" of the official histories project at a Department of Veterans Affairs roundtable.

The roundtable comprised of 20 members: senior bureaucrats, veterans' groups and government agencies.

"Professor Stockings stressed the importance and impact of these six official histories on the veteran community, as well as the complexities, sensitivities and negative consequences of the long delays in the clearance process," the meeting's official communique reported.

"Members voiced support for a concerted effort by interested ex-service organisations to advocate for the completion of the project," it concluded.

Professor Stockings declined to comment for this article.

The ABC contacted the Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Minister for Veterans Affairs with an extensive list of questions for this story.

None of those questions were answered.

"Defence continues to support the Australian War Memorial's Official Histories Project," a Defence spokesperson said.

Mark Lax is the chair of Legacy and a 50-year veteran of the RAAF with a PhD in military history.

Dr Lax authored a series of chapters for the Afghanistan volumes about the air force's involvement.

"I don't see why it's such a secret that our public doesn't know what we're doing,"he said.

"It's been held up somewhere, and the question I have is 'Where and why?'."

Dr Lax said references to classified material were checked by a former spy chief who was part of the official history team.

"A retired major general who had been heavily involved in the intelligence world," Dr Lax said.

'More than just war crimes'

In 2020, the Brereton Inquiry found "credible information" that Australian special forces were involved in serious crimes in Afghanistan.

Victoria Cross recipient and former Special Air Service Regiment soldier Ben Roberts-Smith is facing five counts of war crime murder, which relate to deployments in Afghanistan in the years 2009 and 2012.

He has categorically rejected the allegations and said he plans to fight to clear his name in court.

Currently on bail, Mr Roberts-Smith was granted permission by a judge to attend a national commemorative service in Canberra on Sunday, marking 25 years since Australia entered the Afghanistan conflict.

The RSL's national president Peter Tinley said the official histories were needed to ensure the full picture of Middle East wars, including humanitarian work carried out by Australian forces, was understood by the public.

"It's got to be bigger than just alleged war crimes," he said.

"The key issue for veterans is they gave service; [now] they would expect the government of the day to actually honour that service by an official recording of it."