3 months ago
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The head of the Australian War Memorial has blamed a communications breakdown for the fact celebrated journalist Chris Masters was blocked from winning a prestigious literary prize for a book about war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith after an independent judging panel chose him as the winner.
“It wasn’t handled well,” War Memorial Director Matt Anderson conceded of the saga.
Chris Masters speaks outside the Federal Court in June 2023. He and journalist Nick McKenzie from The Age won a defamation case filed by ex-soldier Ben Roberts-Smith against their reporting.Credit: James Brickwood
Anderson told Senate estimates hearings on Wednesday that the Les Carlyon literary prize had been explicitly established as an award for emerging authors, but some social media posts calling for entries for the 2024 prize had not made this clear.
Two independent judges – including Denise Carlyon, the widow of the late historian for whom the prize is named – decided Masters should win the prize for his book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes.
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The War Memorial’s governing council rejected the recommendation and reaffirmed that the prize should only be for emerging writers who had written their first major work.
Blaming a “breakdown in communication”, Anderson vigorously rejected claims the War Memorial did not want to celebrate a book about a disgraced war hero whose Victoria Cross medal honour is celebrated in the memorial.
Greens senator David Shoebridge labelled the affair a “debacle”.
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