Why this petition matters
General Angus Campbell has lost touch with the troops of the ADF. Almost every soldier surveyed believes he is no longer fit to command the ADF due to various factors including the removal of death symbology, the warcrimes investigation, the ADF retention crisis and his political influence. We have terms for a reason, these are to stop commanders from becoming stale. The Labor government reappointed Angus Campbell as CDF which should never have happened. We need a fresh set of eyes in command.
Signatures: Sign this petition to cast your support
Mass exodus from the ADF, weakening Australian defence capability
On the 19th of November 2020, on the release of the Brereton report, a certain number of SASR Soldiers were accused of having a toxic culture, a sound bite General Angus Campbell, AO DSC, repeated to the world, accusing Australian special forces non-commissioned officers of attempting to fuse excellence with Ego, Elitism and Entitlement.
The report, written by his subordinate, absolving successive defence force leaders of anything other than ‘moral responsibility,’ CDF included. It wasn’t written in the report, but the message was loud and clear: there was another “E” in the equation, that of Exemption, Exemption for defence force senior leaders.
In contrast, since the IGADF investigation and subsequent media assault clearly endorsed by ADF leadership, we have seen the lesser ranks of those who served Australia as part of the Special Operations Task Force/Group in Afghanistan systematically abused, disempowered, and marginalised, their valuable service denigrated. Many of these men and women have since medically discharged due to poor mental health caused not only by aspects of their active service, but more damagingly, their treatment by defence and the media on returning home, treatment akin to that of a bygone era.
We have seen ADF leaders, recuse themselves from the very laws and standards Australia once demanded of the leadership of our enemy for the crimes committed by their soldiers. Now, these same officers so belligerently demand of our soldiers.
We have seen how during the same time frame as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, failed procurements have far outweighed the cost of both wars, to a factor of three, minimum, and how some of those failed procurements have featured in the devastating loss to defence families, and the serving community.
We have seen veterans abandoned by defence, given no choice but to defend themselves in court without financial, legal, moral, or any other form of support from the same leaders they once served, a situation that demonstrates complete disregard for those who loyally fought the wars of our generation, and of the families who supported them. This ongoing treatment by defence leadership is yet another failure in their duty of care to the people they proclaim to value. And leadership then took their disregard a step further by giving tacit approval to journalists by failing to counter the lies and fabrications they issue.
We saw the CDF and his service chiefs demand that senators questions in relation to the failures of the MRH90 helicopter be considered and respectful due to the families impacted by loss, a stance in complete contradiction to his grandstanding on the release of the Brereton Report, an uncaring act ignorant of the thousands of families impacted, and without consideration of the accuracy of the unproven and untested allegations, or of jurisprudence.
We have seen the victims of mere allegations labelled as perpetrators by their cold and dispassionate leadership, who, when offered the chance to set right the incorrect and damaging slur, doubled down on their authoritarian position with impunity.
We have seen defence leadership use national security as an excuse to cover their lies, mistruths, and omissions. And we have seen the same leaders hide behind the ‘in consideration of the impact on families,’ excuse, effectively treating them as human shields to not only protect their reputations, but to falsely bolster them. These families are strong families, they have supported loved ones through their years of service to this country, they don’t need protection, they deserve truths.
And now, we have seen as senators, voicing the concerns of their constituents, some of whom are veterans, and in what can only be described as prejudicial conduct, labelled as divisive, and bullied by the leader of Australia’s Defence Force. If the civilian overseers, the senators responsible for scrutinising defence force activities and expenditures are not immune from the wrath of our military leaders, is there anyone in Canberra able to hold them to account?
People do not leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses. Due to current woke agendas pushed to appease minorities and avoid negative media coverage, defence leaders have implemented poorly conceived reforms, while at the same time denigrating its veterans. The ADF’s best assets, its people, are leaving the defence force in droves, weakening Australia’s defence capability and national security, the very thing our leaders assert they are protecting. This exodus of people from the ADF creates a vacuum that cannot be filled, not because of better paid jobs elsewhere, but because the incompetence, failures, double standards, blame shifting, and lack of real support from defence leaders that has been painstakingly witnessed by all.
And what has been defence’s answer to the current recruitment and retention crisis? To appoint yet another general to investigate why those who did, and those who normally would serve our great nation, no longer wish to do so. A weak, box-ticking exercise to avoid leadership accountability, that does not resolve the issues.
If your medals are of such import, keep them, and take ours back; there are more pressing items on the agenda. Over two decades, incompetence in ADF hierarchy more intent on accolades, awards, and the trappings of power, has mismanaged Australia’s defence force into its weakest ever position, and done so at a time when the world is in its most volatile and dangerous state since WW2. These leaders leave us poorly defended, and solely reliant on another nation with a dubious track record for supporting its allies in war. Those of us who have been to war, who have been ‘in action’, don’t relish another war, especially one fought on the home front, that require our children to fight.
On releasing the IGADF report into war crimes allegations, Angus Campbell was reported as saying, “We are a nation that stands up when something goes wrong and deals with it and that is what I intend to do.” Well, as a concerned veteran and father of three Australian sons, this is me standing up, hoping someone in Government will deal with this crisis. Or am I right with the final E? Exemption: Are our Defence Force leaders truly exempt from their failures and above international and domestic laws?
The Royal Commission into veteran suicides, while sorely needed, is a direct reflection of the poor leadership that mismanaged defence over decades. A Royal Commission into ADF leadership, specifically the failures in leadership during the Afghanistan war, and subsequent to it, is now imperative to ensure the same failures are not repeated. The Government fails the nation if it does not.
Signed
A concerned father and SOTG Veteran.
Name and address supplied.
Ron… thanks for the comment.
This call by a veteran for Angus’s replacement is what eventually becomes known as “a pivotal moment in history”.
I have known a few vets and I am well aware of how they distrust civvies, so if I spoke out to them it is unlikely they would respond. And yet there was a time when they approached me at a time of crisis.
As a vet, you may be able to achieve what I cannot. This demand for the replacement of a traitor leader must go through the motions because the minds of soldiers and their families require it. All must feel that everything that should have been done, has been done, and still the politicians stand with the enemy.
Both soldiers and their families must firmly comprehend that they are Australia’s last hope for national sovereignty and freedom. They are the only patriots with the capacity to save our nation. Only armed with this secure knowledge will they act; and act without consideration for superfluous issues.
I have a clear vision of how we can restore this nation but first I need to talk to the author of the call for Campbell’s removal. I can point him in the direction of information he needs. If you are comfortable with this role, I can be contacted securely on tonyryan@protonmail.com
One officer was accused of alleged war crimes. General Angus Campbell’s response was to call for whole Units of innocent soldiers to be stripped of their hard won medals. What a Moron. What a way to lose the respect of his men and a whole Nation. What a disgraceful legacy!
Could you imagine having Linda Burney as the new Governor General as Commander in Chief of the ADF. Go Woke and Go Broke
Feel so sorry for all past & present ADF members who were discarded & forgotten. Exactly the same is still going on in the WA Police. Over 300 injured & ill former officers have been discarded and forgotten (forced medical “retirement) due to involvement in critical on duty incidents, mostly from many years past (not in recent Cvd era). No ongoing financial assistance. Nothing. Attempt civil court action, they will break you even further with their own legion of lawyers. Police Union, hopeless. Many have already turned to suicide to end the pain & suffering.
Or maybe they are leaving due to vax injuries like most of the US military.. you can bet the top brass were exempt by the way.
They are probably leaving in droves because they are sick and tried of going to war in countries for foreign powers… these wars have nothing to do with us. Why should they risk life and limb for these psychopaths who create these wars.
Tonyryan43 – “Our ADF are no longer patriots, defending Australians from our enemies. They are defending the enemy from the fury of the people. Exactly!
criminal money face – would be a physiognomy snap right out of the old crime detective annals but this one is in a key position of our own military, praised by Gillard.
This cross eyed dunderhead campbell is nothing more than a puppet for the ALP and it’s lefttard morons. The sooner he is gone the better.
tonyry an43 and Phil
Tony said: Try me, grunt.
I am an ex old grunt, not from the new woke Army.
I would not try you. I have been reading your articles and comments for a couple of years. You are staunch, definitely not woke. Wide awake. yes. I would like to be on your side, preferably your good side.
Phil, thanks for the info, 100 %. agree with you. What the ADF did during the lock downs was (or was bordering on) treason, it was at least cowardly bullying conduct..
The ADF certainly needs to be re-born, to change from defending the NWO, back to defending the people of Australia.
The Australian Army that I knew, no longer exists, we were awake, the new Army is Woke,.
We need the ADF back protecting the people, then we can give them the very high level of respect that they used to have.
The thoroughly evil eyed POS Campbell also needs to answer for the ADF used to enforce lockdowns that heavily impacted the poor and ethnically diverse west and south-west suburbs of Sydney.
And also answering for ADF personnel being deployed in army trucks to ‘assist’ with a reported COVID outbreaks in remote indigenous areas of the NT enforcing quarantining and jabbing.
Not to mention the RAAF being deployed to disperse toxic aerosols in our skies. Like just now in the majestic Victorian high country (where I now reside) on a completely clear blue sky day, now turned to a poisonous grey-out.
When his time comes for the rope, hope Campbell get a very short drop…
Temp[lar 1066… Four-star: 44 to be precise, and every one of them incompetent.
Our ADF are no longer patriots, defending Australians from our enemies. They are defending the enemy from the fury of the people.
Not only that, they are chockful of tranny, gay, whatever fringedwellers who are attacking the concept of family in Australia. I have no objection to women fighting alongside men, provided they share the same physical capacity and are prepared to renounce all loyalties other than their comrade soldier fighting alongside. Sadly, I can see the day when we civvie Aussies will be fighting our own traitorous ADF who takes orders from the Pentagon psychopaths responsible for 61 invasions of elected governments, since 1946. All of this has happened under Angus’s watch. He has to go. If the ADF needs a bit of muscle and fighting power to kickstart a new army, count me in. Although I am 80, I can still kick arse with the best of them. Try me, grunt.
Sorry perol1944, our supposed Governor General has not sworn the correct Oath of Office.
well if he is not doing his job he needs to go along with any others that are not preforming along with their woke culture. the army that I served in was a totally different army of to day, I would not recommend any young male or female to serve in this shit show that passes for our defense forces, no way, that includes my kids as well. these defense force high ranking personnel need to be culled out.
The author said – “We have seen veterans abandoned by defence, given no choice but to defend themselves in court without financial, legal, moral, or any other form of support…”
This is not new, folks.
The ADF is ADVERSARIAL when it comes to its members’ welfare and rights. Always has been, right from the start, no matter HOW far back you choose to go.
And the Australian Department of Defence keeps LEGIONS of BARRISTERS on its payroll to deal with any challenge by its chattel, no matter how fleeting or trivial. Just in case anyone starts getting a bit too uppity.
Anyone in any doubt – just research one tell-tale example, namely the Voyager disaster. Official government policy on THAT one was to string any challenges and lawsuits out until any and all victims and other complainants died of old age. And so they did.
Meanwhile, I’m hearing rumours that General Angus Campbell is a sold-out treasonous mass-murdering Freemason paedophile, just like the fake “Governor General”, His Alleged Excellency General the Supposedly Honourable David John Hurley. Let’s be clear, folks – all of this is just unsubstantiated rumours, the “word on the street” so to speak, because how are we EVER going to FINALLY and UNAMBIGUOUSLY get to the bottom of Senator Heffernan’s list of 28 prominent paedophiles (and all the rest) which is being steadfastly kept SECRET and HIDDEN from us by our fake corporate “government”? Draw your own conclusions – no-one else can do that FOR you.
In any case, look how well ALL of these mongrels have “served” the Australian people over the last four years. When the Fat Lady sings, I’d wager characters such as these will be swinging from lamp posts, if they haven’t already committed suicide or otherwise been dealt with by their OWN secret Satanic brotherhoods.
Nothing has changed since the Australian involvement in Vietnam. Is it a “freemason thing”?
Diggers are about mateship not woke crap.
What is particularly amazing (not unique to the ADF) is the number of star ranked officers (Brigadier or above equivalent) in the ADF. There are several dozen for an Australian defence force of approximately 75,000. During WWII the US had 7 four-star officers (Navy, Army, Marines and USAF) commanding an estimated 8 million troops. Today, the US military has more than 40 four-star officers and literally hundreds of 1-3-star officers commanding slightly fewer than 2 million active service members. Clearly, the value of these ranks has diminished.
In case you have forgotten, the Commander in Chief of the Australian Armed Forces is still the Governor General, representing the Monarch of the UK & Northern Ireland.