The decision to remove Afghanistan battle medals is contested by an Australian soldier.

At least one of the commanding officers the federal government said would be stripped of medals over alleged war crimes that happened under their command in Afghanistan has challenged the decision.

The challenge, which is being resolved within the Defence Department, has added at least four months of delay to a process that has already taken more than four years.

The decision to strip a number of current and former officers of their distinguished service medals was announced by Defence Minister Richard Marles in parliament in September.

At the time, the government did not say exactly how many individuals had had their honours stripped, saying only that it was fewer than 10.

Last week, a spokesperson for Mr Marles said the honour roll would now be updated when the appeal process was complete.

“Certain honours and awards attract additional processes and procedural fairness arrangements that must be followed,” a spokesperson for Mr Marles told the ABC.

“Any decision to cancel an honour or award after that process concludes will be reflected on the honour roll.”

It is believed not all the commanders affected have challenged the minister’s decision.

Brereton report identified war crimes committed by troops
Reviewing the decorations of some commanders was a recommendation of the Brereton Inquiry into misconduct and war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

Inquiry head Paul Brereton, a major general in the Army Reserve and former NSW Supreme Court judge who now heads the National Anti-Corruption Commission, handed in his final report in November 2020.

In his report, he found there was “credible information” that on 25 occasions Australian soldiers committed war crimes, including 23 occasions where they murdered one or more people.

He said the crimes were committed by front-line soldiers and he “found no evidence that there was knowledge of, or reckless indifference to, the commission of war crimes” by commanding officers or those further up the Defence hierarchy.

“Commanders nonetheless bear some responsibility for contributing to the environment in which war crimes were committed, most notably those in SASR (the Special Air Service Regiment) who embraced or fostered the ‘warrior culture’ and empowered, or did not restrain, the clique of NCOs (non-commissioned officers) who propagated it,” he said.

He recommended the review of “decorations to those in command positions at troop, squadron and task group level” during five special operations group rotations through Afghanistan, as well as a review of every decoration given to SASR commanders between 2008 and 2012.

On September 12 last year, Mr Marles told parliament he had written to a group of commanders “about my decision in relation to medals awarded to them as part of their service during periods proximate to the incidents which are at the heart of the Brereton Report”.

“This is the final step in government action emanating from the Brereton Report,” he said.

The decision was criticised by the opposition at the time, who accused the defence minister of “insensitivity” for making the announcement during the week the report into royal commission into veteran suicide was released and for throwing “lower ranked diggers under the bus” by not taking action against former army chiefs and chiefs of defence.

Last month, veterans told a parliamentary hearing they wanted an apology from former defence chief Angus Campbell over the saga, calling General Campbell a “traitor” for “smearing” Afghanistan veterans.

The same hearing was told veterans wanted a significant overhaul of military honours and awards.

Identities of officers may never be known
When a decoration is cancelled, the decision is published in the Commonwealth Gazette, an official publication that records many of the decisions made by the government.

The gazette shows that three distinguished service decorations have been cancelled since Mr Marles’ announcement, however, they were not related to Afghanistan and were only revoked because the recipients were upgraded to a higher honour.

The decision to cancel defence decorations formally rests with Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who acts on the advice of the minister.

A spokesperson for the official secretary to Ms Mostyn said the office “does not comment on matters relating to the cancellation of honours and awards prior to the process being finalised”.

The Australian public may never learn the identities of every officer whose decoration is cancelled.

This is because many decorations handed out for service in Afghanistan were given under pseudonyms — typically a rank and single letter — to protect the identity of special forces soldiers.

“In some circumstances, individuals captured by this decision have been recorded with a pseudonym due to protected identity status,” Mr Marles’s spokesperson said.

“Where this is the case, the honour roll will be updated with a consistent pseudonym. Where this is not the case, the cancellation will be reflected next to the individual’s name.”