Culture of ‘illegal violence’ and drug abuse alleged in leaked Defence report
The explosive confidential report commissioned by Defence contains allegations members of Australia’s elite special forces may have used “unsanctioned and illegal application of violence on operations”, facilitated by weak leadership and a perceived lack of accountability.
According to Fairfax Media, the report says Defence insiders confidentially described a “disregard for human dignity” by some special forces soldiers.
It also describes concerns special forces officers pressure politicians to agree to missions that might not be in the public interest, and that the spread of former special operations personnel through Defence and other government agencies might hamstring attempts to bring our special forces to heel.
The report was commissioned in 2016 by Major General Jeff Sengelman, then head of the SAS. He was concerned about the impact of years of high-intensity deployments on Australia’s small special forces community.