{"id":17257,"date":"2025-09-12T04:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/17257\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T04:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:04:08","slug":"australian-war-memorial-defers-military-history-prize-after-judging-panel-awards-it-to-book-on-ben-roberts-smith-australian-war-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/17257\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian War Memorial defers military history prize after judging panel awards it to book on Ben Roberts-Smith | Australian War Memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian War Memorial<\/a> has effectively overruled a decision by its appointed judges to award a military history literary prize to a book about the alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.<\/p>\n

War memorial sources and documents seen by Guardian Australia show that an external judging panel chose Chris Masters\u2019 book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes as the 2024 winner of the Les Carlyon literary award for military history, after a panel comprising memorial employees had included it in a shortlist of six from 59 entries.<\/p>\n

But the documents \u2013 including internal emails \u2013 show the memorial reverted to earlier eligibility criteria rather than announcing the winner, restricting the award to \u201cemerging writers\u201d publishing a \u201cfirst book or major publication\u201d.<\/p>\n

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This effectively disqualified Masters because he has written four other books.<\/p>\n

In one email to the war memorial\u2019s director, Matt Anderson, the head of the internal judging panel, Karl James, wrote that not awarding the 2024 prize \u201cmay avoid possible short-term uncomfortableness due to the nature of the nominated work\u201d.<\/p>\n

But not awarding the prize \u201cinvites greater reputational damage \u2026 than awarding it to a controversial winner\u201d, James wrote.<\/p>\n

The biennial award was inaugurated in 2020 in honour of Carlyon, the celebrated journalist and military historian and a former member of the war memorial council, the institution\u2019s governing body. It was announced<\/a> as an award for an author\u2019s \u201cfirst book or major publication\u201d.<\/p>\n

Eligibility for the 2022 award was broadened by the judging panel to include established authors at the behest of Carlyon\u2019s widow, Denise, one of the prize\u2019s two external judges.<\/p>\n

Announcing the 2022 shortlist<\/a>, Anderson described the prize as \u201ca way to support both emerging and established military or war history writers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Correspondence seen by Guardian Australia suggests the council decided in June 2024 to reverse the judging panel\u2019s move and recommit to the pre-2022 \u201cemerging author\u201d guidelines \u2013 although sources insist the judging panels were not informed of this decision.<\/p>\n

On 31 July 2024, the memorial again called for entries<\/a> for the $10,000 prize, which it advertised<\/a> as being for \u201csingle-authored works of fiction and nonfiction relating to Australian military history, Australian social military history, or Australian war history\u2019\u2019. There was no mention of it being for emerging authors only or for a \u201cfirst major publication\u201d.<\/p>\n

The internal judges compiled a shortlist of six authors by the end of October 2024. It included five works by experienced authors, among them Masters\u2019 entry and another book about Roberts-Smith, Nick McKenzie\u2019s Crossing the Line. The list was sent to the external judges, and in early December they chose Masters\u2019 book.<\/p>\n

But the winner was not announced, as anticipated, later that month.<\/p>\n

\u2018Option 1 is not an option\u2019<\/p>\n

On 19 May 2025 Denise Carlyon emailed Anderson, saying she had been \u201cgiven a short list of 6 books to consider for the Award\u201d and that \u201cFlawed Hero by Chris Masters stood out as the winner. A controversial and sobering story, Masters\u2019 (and other journalists\u2019) long search for any truth behind rumours of alleged war crimes by war hero Ben Roberts-Smith<\/a> VC MG in Afghanistan, and the defamation trial which followed, is unprecedented in our military history. The story has provoked intense debate as the nation grapples with an unfamiliar subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the following month, despite the winner having been chosen almost six months earlier, the council confirmed its decision to revert to the pre-2022 judging criteria, the emails show.<\/p>\n

Chris Masters talks to the media in June 2023 at the end of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial. Photograph: Saeed Khan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

On 11 July, James, the memorial\u2019s head of military history, emailed Anderson a list of \u201coptions to address the 2024 Les Carlyon Literary Prize and looking towards the future\u2019\u2019 in light of \u201cCouncil\u2019s endorsement at their June 2025 meeting to limit eligible criteria to emerging writers to their first book or major publication\u201d [italics in original].<\/p>\n

The first option, James wrote in the email, seen by Guardian Australia, was to award the prize \u201cas per the recommendations of the existing judging panel\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

One advantage of this, he wrote, was that it \u201cwould demonstrate that the memorial is open to difficult ideas and conversations concerning the Australian experience of war\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

About the \u201crisks\u2019\u2019 of this option, he wrote: \u201cSome may consider the winning work controversial. Council\u2019s endorsement regarding the original criteria in June 2024, retrospectively now rules out five of the six shortlisted works, including the nominated winner.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Another option canvassed by James was: \u201cThe memorial does not award the 2024 LCP.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The advantages of that would have included that the memorial \u201cmay avoid possible short-term uncomfortableness due to the nature of the nominated work\u201d, he wrote.<\/p>\n

But not awarding the prize \u201cinvites greater reputational damage \u2026 than awarding it to a controversial winner\u201d.<\/p>\n

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On 4 August Anderson replied to James and others to say: \u201cOption 1, is not an option.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil have now, twice [in June 2024 and June 2025], confirmed the Les Carlyon Prize is to be for emerging writers for their first book or major publication. I challenge the inference that it\u2019s through Option 1 we can demonstrate the Memorial is open to difficult ideas and conversations involving the Australian experience of war. The first Les Carlyon Prize went to a work on Frontier 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all books from the your [sic] original shortlist, notwithstanding their ineligibility for the Les Carlyon Prize, are for sale in the Memorial\u2019s bookshop and some were promoted (with a full-page ad) in the Memorial\u2019s Wartime magazine.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Anderson wrote that \u201coverall, I think the option of a pause, the conduct of a careful review of governance arrangements around Les Carlyon Prize \u2026 and then proceed with a process that honours those emerging writers (once defined) who entered the competition in 2024, and calls for more for 2026, will arrive at a solution where we could, indeed, have two winners next year.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the war memorial said the prize had been awarded biennially \u201cfor an author\u2019s first book or major publication relating to Australian military<\/a> or social military history\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvertisements for the 2024 call for submissions were inconsistent and some excluded the requirement that entrants be emerging or unpublished authors. When this was brought to Council\u2019s attention in June 2025, they unanimously restated their intention that the award remain for emerging writers and were not privy to the short-list or long-list.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Memorial will be writing to all entrants to apologise for the delay and any inconvenience. Entries already submitted by emerging authors for their first major publication relating to Australian military history, social military history or war history will remain under consideration in any future process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council is undertaking a full governance review to ensure integrity and transparency in future competitions. Once resolved, the 2026 competition will proceed, and all eligible entrants will be encouraged to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denise Carlyon funds the prize with others including Kerry Stokes, the chair of Seven West Media, a prominent patron of the memorial and also Roberts-Smith\u2019s former employer at Seven West Media.<\/p>\n

Stokes has been a staunch supporter of the former soldier, funding his failed defamation bid<\/a> against Masters, McKenzie and Nine Media and subsequent appeals. Stokes is not on the memorial\u2019s governing council and has no involvement in judging the prize.<\/p>\n

The governing council<\/a> is chaired by the former defence minister Kim Beazley, and also includes the the former prime minister Tony Abbott.<\/p>\n

Flawed Hero is a detailed account of investigations by Masters and McKenzie into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by Roberts-Smith, whose final appeal bid in his failed defamation action against the journalists was rejected by the high court<\/a> this month.<\/p>\n

The book details the institutional and political support given to Roberts-Smith, including by the memorial<\/a> and prominent figures associated with it.<\/p>\n

Masters said he would have been proud to receive the award.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt grieves me to watch this spectacle of the memorial\u2019s surrender to populism politics,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen this institution was inaugurated, it was meant to act in part as a reminder for future generations of the brutality and the utter futility of modern war. And when Ben Roberts-Smith VC became a centrepiece attraction I tried to warn staff that this might be a mistake. The failure to heed those warnings became a subject of embarrassment for the memorial\u2019s administration, and my reporting on war crimes allegations a source of resentment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am still fond of the place but wish they could find the courage they so eagerly honour. Most soldiers I know are honest ambassadors for truth-telling about the experience of war. They know myth can get them killed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian War Memorial has effectively overruled a decision by its appointed judges to award a military history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-17257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}