The director of the Australian War Memorial has blasted a Defence Force inquiry into the culture of the country's special forces soldiers, questioning whether it is in the national interest.
Brendan Nelson, who once served as defence minister, has urged the Australian Defence Force (ADF) inspector-general to speed up its sweeping investigation into allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan.
"This inquiry seems to be going almost as long as the royal commission into the abuse of children of historical nature," Dr Nelson told the ABC.
"If the inquiry is to be undertaken, for goodness sake can they get on with it and bring it to a conclusion as quickly as is practicable."
In May last year the inspector-general began a scoping inquiry into the culture of Australia's special forces soldiers, including allegations of possible war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
The inquiry is headed by NSW Supreme Court judge and Army Reserve Major General Paul Brereton, who in September called on anyone with information about possible breaches of the laws of war to come forward.
'On the basis of rumours'
Dr Nelson has questioned why the inquiry, which has already run 18 months, is taking so long.
"I don't see the national interest in having protracted inquiries calling for people to come forward on the basis of rumours and in relation to the inquiry that's being conducted into special operations that have been conducted in Afghanistan," he said.
The Defence Department says the inspector-general has not adopted a specific reporting date.
In a statement to the ABC, the department says "the finalisation of the report will depend on the number of additional lines of inquiry identified as the inquiry progresses".
Dr Nelson said he was confident that if any "considerable" breaches of the laws of armed conflict were found, the perpetrators would be brought to account.
But he wanted instead to focus on those special forces soldiers who died in Afghanistan.
"The families of those 21 men from Special Operations Command whose names are on the roll of honour here, they need to know that someone's standing up for them," he said.
