Four Corners: June 9

This week on Four Corners, Michael Brissenden reports on sexual abuse in the Australian Defence Force Academy, some of which dates back decades.

She’s a serving Army officer who was raped at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA). She reported the crime but her case was dropped. Now she lives with the fear of meeting her attacker, even as she works to protect her country.

“To walk around the corner and literally bump into him again, was awful… to still have him standing there, laughing and joking with his mates and knowing he’s still part of the organisation that I’m in.”

Why wasn’t her allegation believed? And why has her attacker been promoted while she lives with fear? Confronted with this case, the Chief of Defence tells Four Corners:

“Look, I think that’s totally unacceptable, and if that’s occurring she should contact me directly or her head of service.”

However, this case isn’t isolated. Reporter Michael Brissenden was told by a former officer of a filing cabinet called the “chamber of horrors” full of brown envelopes, each containing a complaint lodged by cadets at the ADFA alleging sexual harassment or assault.

In many cases these complaints contain serious allegations made against trainee officers who now hold senior rank in the military.

Two years ago, the so called “Skype Affair” led the then Defence Minister Stephen Smith to demand that, once and for all, the ADF comes to terms with the full extent of sexual abuse in its ranks. Complaints flooded in but the response has created a new set of problems for the top brass.

The first is the sheer volume of cases, many dating back several decades. As one insider told the program:

“No one really knows what the true extent of it is because, it’s only now that at last all the data is being… brought together in a central location.”

But the major problem posed by the shocking evidence that’s been gathered, is what to do with the information? A compensation structure has been set up for the abused, but what happens to the abusers?

The independent taskforce assessing abuse claims has referred more than 60 complaints to police and identified alleged perpetrators, but those who have seen the process first hand claim there are still questions over whether the taskforce handling the complaints is equipped to deal with all the wrongdoers:

“The senior leadership group [in the taskforce]… were not prepared to approach the Minister to extend the terms of reference to enable that sort of investigative work, that is the pursuit of perpetrators.”

Some officers who spoke to Four Corners even suggested the ADFA should be abolished. Others simply argue that there is only one real solution:

“One can’t help but feel that what we really need is a Royal Commission to look into all aspects of this.”

Monday 9th June at 8.30pm on ABC1.