Kim Beazley has defended the Australian War Memorial’s decision to not award a prestigious literary prize to journalist Chris Masters for a book about alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, insisting the rules prevent established authors from being considered.
The memorial chair told Guardian Australia the prize is “explicitly for emerging authors” and not for those who have previously published major titles.
Beazley – a former Labor leader, defence minister and ambassador to Washington – said he was not present at a meeting of the memorial’s governing council when the issue was discussed, but his input was sought.
“That view was reaffirmed by the council at its last meeting,” the former Labor leader and defence minister said.
Guardian Australia revealed last week the memorial had overruled a decision by its appointed judges to name Chris Masters’ book, Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes, as the 2024 winner of the Les Carlyon literary award for military history.
A panel comprising memorial employees had included the book in a shortlist of six for the award, inaugurated in 2020 in honour of Carlyon, the celebrated journalist and military historian and a former member of the memorial’s council.
External judges for the award, including Carlyon’s widow, Denise, selected Masters’ book. But the council decided in June 2024 to reverse the judging panel’s move, citing previous narrower eligibility rules which called for entries from emerging authors. The move effectively disqualified Masters, the author of four previous books.
Eligibility for the 2022 award was broadened by the judging panel to include established authors.
Correspondence seen by Guardian Australia suggests the council decided in June 2024 to reverse the judging panel’s move and recommit to the pre-2022 “emerging author” guidelines – although sources insist the judging panels were not informed of this decision.
Council member and RSL national president, Greg Melick, told Guardian Australia the council was unaware that Masters had been awarded the prize before it intervened in the process.
“At the time that decision was made by council, we had no idea who had won the prize or who’d been nominated for the prize,” he said.
“We hadn’t even seen the shortlist, and to suggest that council decided not to go ahead because of the book or the subject was rubbish.”
Flawed Hero is a detailed account of investigations by Masters and the award-winning journalist Nick 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 this month.
The book details the institutional and political support given to Roberts-Smith, including by the memorial and prominent figures associated with it.
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A spokesperson for the minister for veterans’ affairs, Matt Keogh, said the council had a deep understanding of, and experience in, Australia’s military history, military service, and commemoration of military service.
“The Australian War Memorial council is made up of members with diverse experience in senior leadership, with a deep understanding of, and experience in, Australia’s military history, military service, and commemoration of military service.”
• This article was updated on 16 September to correct a subheading that incorrectly referred to Beazley as a former foreign minister.
