Kim Beazley defends controversial decision to deny Chris Masters a literary prize

2 hours ago 4

Australian War Memorial Council chair Kim Beazley has defended the controversial decision not to award a prestigious book prize to Chris Masters, declaring the decision had nothing to do with the fact that the veteran journalist’s book was about war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.

Beazley claimed the war memorial had not retrospectively changed the entry rules for the Les Carlyon Literary Prize to block Masters from winning, despite leaked emails showing the memorial’s governing council overruled its own judges’ verdict that Masters’ book, Flawed Hero, was the best entry.

Australian War Memorial chair Kim Beazley has defended the decision not to award a literary prize to veteran journalist Chris Masters.

Masters’ book examines Roberts-Smith’s actions in Afghanistan and subsequent efforts by his fellow soldiers to hold him to account.

Media mogul Kerry Stokes, a donor to the literary prize and a former chair of the memorial, has been a pivotal supporter of Roberts-Smith, including by funding his failed defamation trial against The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

“It’s an important prize but for a specific purpose: to encourage new authors and reward people who haven’t done it before,” Beazley told this masthead.

“You want to encourage new people in the field.”

Beazley, a former Labor leader who has served as chair of the war memorial since 2022, said being a new author was “one of the principal criteria of the award”.

Although the $10,000 prize was originally an award for an author’s “first book or major publication”, eligibility was broadened in 2022 by the judging panel to include established authors at the request of Carlyon’s widow Denise, one of the prize’s two external judges.

The 2024 call for entries made no mention of limiting the award to new authors.

Beazley said that his view was canvassed during the process, and he made clear he believed the prize should be reserved for emerging authors only.

When asked if the subject matter of Masters’ book had influenced the decision, Beazley said: “Absolutely not.”

“We have no objection to any of the material, our objection is to the originality of the author – that’s all,” Beazley said.

“All I know is, the fact is that the council likes to have these things abided by.”

In 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko found that, to the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of four unarmed civilians while serving in Afghanistan, as well as bullying and threatening colleagues.

The head of the internal judging panel and the memorial’s head of history, Karl James, argued in favour of giving the award to Masters, as did Denise Carlyon, according to emails reported by The Guardian.

Masters, who has previously published several books, said over the weekend: “It’s just so sad that they take this bloody stupid attitude.

“Soldiers are the last people who want lies to be told about what actually happens in conflict.”

In an opinion piece for this masthead, Masters wrote that the judging “criteria were adjusted to eliminate established authors like me”.

“How is that an Aussie fair go, to change the rules at half-time?” he wrote.

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