16 September 2025: Memorial Council Chair Kim Beazley says decision was about awarding to emerging authors, not about the content (Ben Roberts-Smith). Another report of Beazley's remarks. Greg Melick weighs in. Also updated by author to add the quotes from Karl James.
17 September 2025: Memorial to further tweak its display on BRS but the display stays in place. Chris Masters comments that the decision to merely update the plaque 'feels like another cringe'.
19 September 2025: David Marr talks to Peter Stanley on ABC Late Night Live and they remind us that the two previous awards both went to experienced authors, Stephen Gapps and Christine Helliwell. And point out that non-award was an option and the prize could have come back next year.
25 September 2025: Long article in Canberra Times from Dana Daniel canvasses a range of issues about the role of the Memorial: BRS; whether the Memorial has lost its way; the Big Build; Council composition; the Australian Wars. Defending Country President Peter Stanley quoted at length. Pdf from our subscription.
Paul Daley's Guardian article last Friday ('Australian War Memorial defers military history prize after judging panel awards it to book on Ben Roberts-Smith') began a flurry of commentary, including from the Prime Minister and Minister Keogh. Defending Country has noted with alarm the revelations about how the War Memorial makes decisions, but our sharper focus is on what it does about proper recognition and commemoration of the Australian Wars.
Daley, using sources and leaked emails from the Memorial, described the tortuous process by which the Memorial failed to award its 2024 Les Carlyon Award to Chris Masters for his book, Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes. Daley included quotes from Masters, who was understandably extremely annoyed at what had happened. He had every right to be.
Daley's piece was followed by Kerrie O'Brien in Nine Newspapers (with more quotes from Masters), Dana Daniel in the Canberra Times and again, Nine Newspapers again, Masters himself, and Prime Minister Albanese and his Minister in Perth.
While Memorial people do not say so explicitly in the leaked material quoted by Daley, ambivalence about BRS must have underlain the Memorial Council's contortions about how to deal with the external committee recommendation to award the prize to Masters. Memorial historian Karl James delicately set out the implications of awarding to Masters or not awarding at all. Daley spells it out:
The first option, James wrote in the email, seen by Guardian Australia, was to award the prize "as per the recommendations of the existing judging panel".
One advantage of this, he wrote, was that it "would demonstrate that the memorial is open to difficult ideas and conversations concerning the Australian experience of war".
About the "risks" of this option, he wrote: "Some may consider the winning work controversial. Council’s endorsement regarding the original criteria in June 2024, retrospectively now rules out five of the six shortlisted works, including the nominated winner."
Another option canvassed by James was: "The memorial does not award the 2024 LCP."
The advantages of that would have included that the memorial "may avoid possible short-term uncomfortableness due to the nature of the nominated work”, he wrote.
But not awarding the prize "invites greater reputational damage … than awarding it to a controversial winner".
Memorial Director Matt Anderson forthrightly rejected the first option but presumably helped the Memorial Council to resurrect the rules applying to the Carlyon Award before Masters' book was an entry. This excluded Masters because he was not a first-time author as the old/new rules required.
Many issues arise: How powerful are the pro-BRS forces in the commemoration industry and at the Memorial? How inefficient are the Memorial Council's decision-making processes, particularly if it only makes decisions by consensus rather than voting? (What happens when a recalcitrant member resists all attempts at consensus, except on an impossibly ambiguous decision?) Will the imminent potential changes to the Council membership make any difference?
Chris Masters has a long association with the Memorial, so his trenchant remarks should not be taken lightly. Perhaps there's hope for change, not just on flawed heroes but also on the Australian Wars. Defending Country noted with interest Director Anderson's remark quoted by Daley, 'The first Les Carlyon Prize went to a work on Frontier Wars [Stephen Gapps, The Sydney Wars], and you know better than most through your guiding hand, considerable work on difficult content has informed what will go in the new (and existing) galleries'.
That sounds encouraging for the Memorial's treatment of the Australian Wars. Defending Country has recently seen hopeful signs. We watch and wait.
Whether the issue at the Memorial is awarding prizes for books or confronting our Black and White history, Defending Country notes two remarks by Chris Masters:
I am still fond of the place but wish they could find the courage they so eagerly honour.
It’s just so sad that they take this bloody stupid attitude.
Picture credit: detail of book cover Flawed Hero by Chris Masters
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