By
Paul Cross
The
role of Inspector General, ADF has been established with the aim
of monitoring the fairness of the military justice system.
The role of the IGADF is twofold – firstly to provide the CDF
with an independent means of monitoring the military justice system.
And secondly to provide an avenue for failures in the justice
system to be examined and fixed.
The IGADF concept was arrived at from the recommendations of former
Federal Court Justice James Burchett and his 2001 inquiry into
military justice, which was sparked by allegations of rough justice
in the ADF.
First appointee to the post was Geoff Earley, a veteran of the
ADF and the legal profession, who said the position represented
a new concept, not only for Australia but with its exclusive focus
on military justice, elsewhere as well.
“What we are doing here is ground breaking and we have spent most
of our time so far developing the way ahead for this new office
because we needed to start almost from scratch,” Mr Earley said.
“One of the important points about this position is that it is
independent of the normal chains of command so that it is not
seen as belonging to one tribe or another and therefore not unduly
influenced by those sorts of connections.
“It does not displace any of the existing mechanisms. It is there
to assist the chain of command by providing independent review
so that any individual or systemic problems can be fixed; it is
not there instead of it.
“With the wide definition of military justice there is a great
deal of data being reported, discipline statistics, outcomes of
inquiries, grievance data, and so on.
“What we have not done particularly well before is to try and
make some sense of all that information in a coordinated way that
might be useful to management by, say, identifying trends.
“We will be conducting periodic focus groups not only with those
people that use the system – the discipline administrators such
as COs and Coxswains – but those people who are from time to time
subject to it. We are interested in identifying those areas that
could be improved.
“There is an important cultural aspect to this work as well and
people in this office need to have a good appreciation of the
cultural context in which the justice system works in the ADF.
“While the strictly legal aspects of the system can probably be
grasped by many people who are otherwise unfamiliar with the military,
I think the way that the system underpins what the ADF does in
peace and war, in Australia and overseas, is a very important
part of understanding how it works.”
“Being in the service breeds a sort of stoicism and resilience
in people. By the nature of their service they learn to put up
with hardships, discomfort and sometimes danger. They accept that
by joining up some of their personal liberties may be limited
as well – it is part and parcel of the cultural context. But what
people don’t have to put with is being treated unfairly and unjustly.
“The term military justice also covers the conduct of administrative
inquiries and the right to make a complaint. There is a distinction
between a complaint and the right to make a complaint.
“That right continues to be an important feature of the military
justice system and it is the denial of that right which is of
interest to this office.”
“It is necessary that any modern defence force be a disciplined
service otherwise it would just be a mob. But you can have very
tight discipline in an organisation with very little justice.
“On the other hand, an over emphasis on individual rights can
also undermine discipline – we need a balance between the two.”
“What we want to help achieve is not only a disciplined ADF but
a just ADF as well.”
Anyone
can make a submission about military justice to the IGADF.
Further details can be obtained by contacting the office or telephone
1800 688 042 or by email: igadf@defence.gov.au
