{"id":21158,"date":"2025-09-14T03:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T03:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/21158\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T03:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T03:07:17","slug":"australian-war-memorial-changes-book-prize-rules-to-reject-ben-roberts-smith-expose-by-chris-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/21158\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian War Memorial changes book prize rules to reject Ben Roberts-Smith expos\u00e9 by Chris Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"

He said the judges had acted in that spirit and \u201cthey saw giving [Flawed Hero the award] as an opportunity to discuss something \u2026 discomfiting but important\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stokes had previously employed Roberts-Smith at Seven West Media, and he had funded his defamation claim up to its trial. Stokes is also one of the donors to the Les Carlyon Literary Prize.<\/p>\n

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In June, the memorial\u2019s governing council overruled the judges\u2019 decision to award the prize to Masters, reverting to old rules around entry that meant only first-time authors were eligible, ruling out Masters, who has written several books.<\/p>\n

Head of the internal judging panel and the memorial\u2019s head of history, Karl James, argued in favour of giving the award to Masters in an email, seen by The Guardian, to memorial director Matt Anderson.<\/p>\n

James acknowledged that one option of not awarding the 2024 prize to anyone for that year \u201cmay avoid possible short-term uncomfortableness due to the nature of the nominated work\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, it would also invite \u201cgreater reputational damage \u2026 than awarding it to a controversial winner\u201d.<\/p>\n

The $10,000 Les Carlyon Literary Prize<\/a> was established by the council of the Australian War Memorial to honour the late historian, author, journalist and council member Les Carlyon. It has been awarded biennially since 2020. Carlyon, the author of half a dozen books, had previously been a Walkley Award-winning journalist at The Age.<\/p>\n

Although originally an award for an author\u2019s \u201cfirst book or major publication\u201d, eligibility was broadened in 2022 by the judging panel to include established authors at the request of Carlyon\u2019s widow Denise, one of the prize\u2019s two external judges.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Masters in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

According to The Guardian, on May 19, Denise Carlyon emailed Anderson at the memorial, saying she had been \u201cgiven a short list of six books to consider for the Award\u201d and that \u201cFlawed Hero by Chris Masters stood out as the winner\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 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 she wrote.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Friday, Denise Carlyon said: \u201cI have been concerned about the process.\u201d She declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Australian War Memorial said: \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 shortlist or longlist.<\/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

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The statement released on Friday also said the award \u201chas been awarded biennially for an author\u2019s first book or major publication relating to Australian military or social military history\u201d but that criteria had been changed in 2022.<\/p>\n

While glad the decision had come to light, Masters said it grieved him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so sad that they take this bloody stupid attitude,\u201d he said. \u201cSoldiers are the last people who want lies to be told about what actually happens in conflict. Myth gets them killed, and they need to know the truth about the capacity of people around them and the enemy they face, all that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arts Minister Tony Burke\u2019s office was contacted for comment but referred that request to Defence Minister Richard Marles, who referred the request to Veterans\u2019 Affairs Minister Matt Keogh\u2019s office, which has also been contacted.<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said the judges had acted in that spirit and \u201cthey saw giving [Flawed Hero the award] as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-21158","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\/21158","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=21158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}