Howard Carew is mistaken again about the April 2011 incident at ADFA

Uninformed critics of the ADA surely could at least try to learn what our stance on an issue actually is.

Monday, 06 February 2012
Letter to The Canberra Times
(not published)

Howard Carew (letters, January 31) accused the ADA of “humbug”, lack of sympathy and being an “apologist” for our defence force merely because an ADA letter in the Canberra Times on January 27 did not mention the female victim of the filming incident at ADFA last year.

It is odd that Mr Carew misses the ADA’s championing of her predicament in many forums (as numerous material on our website readily proves).

Including, of course, in letters on 03 and 10 January that The Canberra Times chose not to publish, perhaps to keep readers like Mr Carew content in their prejudices.

Finally, Mr Carew’s opinion that the male cadets concerned should have been “immediately turfed out” of the Academy exemplifies the misconceptions and misinformation underlying past public hysteria and continuing community confusion about this incident.

In particular, he ignores that criminal and disciplinary investigations have to be completed first in order to establish the facts, satisfy the principles of natural justice and the presumption of innocence, and avoid prejudicing ongoing or future judicial, disciplinary and administrative proceedings.

It is Mr Carew’s mindset that is unacceptable, not the supposed mindset of the ADFA authorities he so wrongly and recklessly accuses.

When the Minister for Defence eventually gets around to releasing the Kirkham Inquiry report into the ADFA incident, perhaps Mr Carew can join him in apologising to all those defence force personnel so carelessly slandered and scapegoated.