Coverup of official injustice to Australian Navy sailors -- with whistleblower penalized

The navy has trouble enough as it is in recruiting enough highly-skilled men. Do they think this is going to help? How dumb can you get? And the top brass are such *holes that they have still to apologize for their precipitate actions. It doesn't say much for the leadership of the Australian navy. Isn't there anyone at the top with some decency?


THE navy knew within days that claims crewmen on the supply ship HMAS Success ran a competition on how many female sailors they could sleep with were false but did nothing to set the record straight, the federal Opposition says. The three men were removed from their ship in Singapore in May because of the allegations and have not been posted back to sea since.

The Opposition defence spokesman, David Johnson, said last night the navy's treatment of the men was ''shoddy'' and their careers may have been irreparably damaged. Senator Johnson said the claims were fabricated by an aggrieved shipmate. He said they were told they were to be sent home in disgrace and were given 30 minutes to pack their gear and get off the ship. HMAS Success's commander told the crew a ''rotten core'' had been removed.

Senator Johnson also said a Navy lawyer appointed to represent the men raised concerns about why they were ''landed'' before the allegations were investigated and the navy ignored his requests for information for months. The legal officer was also called aside by his superiors and told that he worked for the navy command and should not consider the men to be his ''clients''. The officer was so concerned that he wrote a report to his superiors setting out his concerns about the way the episode was handled, Senator Johnson said. That officer had since been posted to Western Australia even through his wife worked in NSW.

After the initial media reports in July, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said what was claimed was ''disturbing'' and the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said the claim should be investigated and such behaviour could discourage women from joining the defence force. The claims were widely published around the world.

Senator Johnson said the Navy's investigation report was due out soon. He said it became very clear to ADF investigators from the start that the claim about sailors keeping a ledger on how many female colleagues could be ''bedded'' was blatantly untrue. Senator Johnson said the Navy had over-reacted because of the intense media and political pressure that followed the initial claims run on commercial television.

SOURCE


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