Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied
MEDIA RELEASE
The Returned & Services League of Australia (RSL) says the delay in resolving findings of unlawful killings by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan represents an unacceptable injustice.
RSL Australia National President, Peter Tinley AM, says justice demands that all allegations, findings and charges must be resolved as a matter of urgent priority.
“In November 2020, the Brereton Report found credible evidence of 39 unlawful killings by members of our Special Forces in Afghanistan. It was a confronting act of national accountability and RSL Australia supported it unreservedly,” he said.
“But five years on, one man has been charged. No trial date has been set. The earliest proceedings could begin is 2027, fifteen years after the alleged act.
"That is not justice. That is limbo and it’s costing everyone: the accused and their families, the affected Afghan families who were promised accountability, and the 580,000 Australians who served this country honourably and now watch their service measured against unresolved allegations rather than the truth of what they gave."
Peter Tinley says the cost that concerns him most as National President of the RSL is the one least discussed: what prolonged unresolved proceedings do inside our Defence institution.
Serving personnel are watching this process.
“They are drawing conclusions about whether the institution will stand behind them, whether the legal frameworks governing their conduct are clear, and whether Australia's commitment to accountability is genuine or performative,” he said.
"That uncertainty is not abstract. It affects operational cohesion, recruitment and retention, and our national capability. A Defence Force whose people have doubts about institutional integrity is a less effective Defence Force. This is a sovereign capability issue, not merely a legal one.
“Our community resilience is implicated too. The RSL's 1,100 sub-branches sit at the centre of veteran life across this country. We see what prolonged public ambiguity does to veterans and their families, the reopening of wounds that had begun to close, the reluctance to speak about service, the shame that attaches itself to people who bear none of the responsibility for what the Brereton Report found.
“The broader veteran community also deserves resolution, not indefinite suspension.”
Peter Tinley said he was not making an attack on the legal process.
“Complex prosecutions involving classified material take time, we understand that. But 'complex' cannot become a permanent condition or a defence of slow processes. The national security restrictions delaying both sides from accessing evidence must be resolved with urgency.
“Australia made a promise of accountability in 2020. The integrity of that promise is being measured by the pace at which it is kept.
“RSL Australia believes in our institutions; in the Australian Defence Force, in the courts, in the rule of law that governs how Australians exercise lethal power on behalf of the nation.
That belief is sustained by institutions demonstrating they function as intended, including when that is uncomfortable.”
He said the motto of the RSL has never been more relevant: The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
“Vigilance over our enemies, yes. But also vigilance over ourselves, our standards, and our willingness to be held to account.
“Australia has just marked 25 years of continuous military operations in the region. The Brereton findings, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, and these ongoing proceedings are not separate stories.
“They are chapters in the same account of what we ask of our people, what we owe them, and what standards we are genuinely prepared to enforce.
“We owe honesty to our Defence personnel, our veterans and the community. This process has been too slow, too opaque, and too costly in human terms. This is not a defence of anyone it is a demand for better.
"The 25th anniversary of our Afghanistan commitment falls in October 2026. RSL Australia will mark it with the honest question the moment demands: what have we learned, and how do we know it has been applied?
“A lesson is never learnt until it is applied. That is the standard we hold ourselves to and the standard we will hold our institutions to as well," Peter Tinley said.
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACT – RSL AUSTRALIA: media@rsl.org.au
PRESIDENTIAL BIO AND STANDING NOTE
Peter Tinley AM — National President, RSL Australia
Peter Tinley served 25 years in the Australian Defence Force, including 17 years with the Special Air Service Regiment. He served on operations across multiple theatres, including Afghanistan.
His commentary is the assessment of someone who served in the regiment, understands its culture and its code, and holds that code to the highest standard precisely because of that service.
He was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for service to the ADF and to veterans.
As National President of RSL Australia — the nation's largest veteran organisation — he speaks for its more than 150,000 members and the broader community of 580,000 Australians who have served.