The Albanese Government is attempting to change Australia’s Defence honours system and remove the rights of Defence Force members and veterans to have historic acts of gallantry properly reviewed.
The Defence Amendment (Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal) Bill 2025 has passed in the House of Representatives. The Coalition opposed the Bill, but the Government was able to push it through due to their numbers in the House. The Bill is scheduled to be debated in the Senate this week.
The Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal, the independent body that reviews cases of military bravery, has grave concerns that the Albanese Government’s new bill will set a 20-year time limit on reconsidering awards, which means actions from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and earlier conflicts would no longer be eligible for review.
The Tribunal has stated the impact of 20-year time limit would:
“Abolish and curtail current and significant rights of ADF members, veterans and families and others to seek external and independent merits review of Defence decisions refusing to recommend an ADF member or veteran for a defence honour or award.”
The Tribunal has been operating for 14 years as an agency for independent review of past actions and decisions. Of the 483 reviews the Tribunal has conducted, on 283 occasions it has upheld the decision made by defence, but on 136 occasions it has put forward recommendations to change the decision of defence.
After careful consideration, the Tribunal made recommendations to recognise the service and bravery of people like Teddy Sheean and Richard Nordon, who both received VCs, and the Delta Company action at Long Tan by Harry Smith and his platoon.
Fifty years after the Battle of Long Tan in 1966, the Tribunal determined that ten of the men from Delta Company were not properly recognised and recommended they be awarded a military honour, or have their existing honour upgraded.
Currently, anyone can make an application for the Tribunal to review a Defence decision, but this will no longer be possible if these changes go through. The Bill would remove the rights of review for veterans who saw service in World War II, Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, East Timor, and the earlier years of the Afghanistan campaign.
The capacity to review decisions made by defence was a deliberate design feature of the Tribunal when it was established, but under the changes proposed in this Bill there would be no pathway to review past actions beyond 20 years, even if compelling new evidence becomes available.
There is no evidence that the government properly consulted with the ex-service community on the proposed changes, which are essentially an effort by the government to remove independence from a statutory body which was established in 2011 to consider all Defence honours and awards matters.
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