{"id":628722,"date":"2026-04-24T22:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/628722\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T22:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:18:15","slug":"ben-roberts-smith-attends-anzac-day-event-in-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/628722\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Roberts-Smith attends Anzac Day event in Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Roberts-Smith has spoken after attending an Anzac Day ceremony on the Gold Coast, wearing his medals.<\/p>\n

He said he had not considered not attending the ceremony in Currumbin.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never thought about not coming, I was always going to be here,” he said, briefly speaking to the media.<\/p>\n

He said it was a day “everyone should be reflecting and commemorating the service of all of those Australians that have given us the country that we live in”.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Roberts-Smith said he was always going to attend the service. (ABC News: Emily Dobson)<\/p>\n

Mr Roberts-Smith said he was thinking about service families.<\/p>\n

“Their sons are the ones that I’m thinking about today because that’s what this is all about, and we should never forget their sacrifice because it is enduring,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They think about that every day, they live with that, they’ve given that to us, and we owe them a deep, deep debt.”<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Roberts-Smith was seen at the Dawn Service with his girlfriend Sarah Matulin.\u00a0 (ABC News: Emily Dobson)<\/p>\n

He was seen with his girlfriend, Sarah Matulin, among others in the crowd watching the service.<\/p>\n

After the Dawn Service, supporters flocked to shake hands and take photos with Mr Roberts-Smith.<\/p>\n

A banner with the words “we support BRS” was seen hanging from a balcony on a house on a hill overlooking the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Roberts-Smith watched the ceremony among a crowd.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Mr Roberts-Smith has been residing in Queensland since he was released from Sydney’s Silverwater jail to await trial for five counts of the war crime of murder.<\/p>\n

While he has yet to enter a plea, he has strenuously denied the allegations, which stem from alleged actions during his service in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Roberts-Smith has strenuously denied allegations he committed war crimes in Afghanistan. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi)<\/p>\n

Yesterday, a spokesperson for RSL Australia said all Australians, including Mr Roberts-Smith, were able to attend Anzac Day commemorations.<\/p>\n

“As a service veteran, and like any member of the community, Ben Roberts-Smith is able to attend Anzac Day commemorations should he so choose,” they said.<\/p>\n

RSL Australia national president Peter Tinley added: “Our responsibility is not only to honour the fallen, but to fiercely advocate for and support the living.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Roberts-Smith has spoken after attending an Anzac Day ceremony on the Gold Coast, wearing his medals. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[85102,64,63,83250,44,304739,304738],"class_list":{"0":"post-628722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-anzac-day","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ben-roberts-smith","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-peter-tinley","14":"tag-rsl-australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}