A former commando has alleged that Ben Roberts-Smith, the decorated soldier now facing war crime charges, recommended that Liberal MP Andrew Hastie not be accepted into the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment following its gruelling selection course.
Background on the Allegations
Hastie, who later commanded an SAS troop in Afghanistan, gave evidence against Roberts-Smith in the latter's unsuccessful defamation case against Nine newspapers. Now, fellow Afghanistan veteran Heston Russell has come forward, claiming that Hastie was admitted into the SAS at a time when the elite unit faced difficulties recruiting officers.
Roberts-Smith was charged on April 7 with five counts of war crime murder, allegedly committed while serving with the SAS in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. The 47-year-old, accused of shooting dead unarmed Afghans and ordering subordinates to execute prisoners, has consistently denied any involvement in unlawful killings.
It remains unclear whether Hastie, whose electorate of Canning is located in Perth where the SAS is based, will be called to testify for the prosecution should Roberts-Smith face trial.
Russell's Account of the Selection Course
Russell, who commanded a platoon of the 2nd Commando Regiment in Afghanistan, told the Karl Stefanovic Show that Roberts-Smith 'beasted' Hastie when he was a young officer. The retired major described how Roberts-Smith, then a corporal who had already received the Medal for Gallantry, encountered Hastie on the SAS's July 2010 selection course.
Hastie was a 27-year-old Australian Defence Force Academy graduate who had commanded a troop of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and been deployed to Afghanistan a year earlier. Roberts-Smith was a 32-year-old SAS patrol commander who had recently returned from Afghanistan, where his actions in the June 2010 Battle of Tizak later earned him the Victoria Cross.
'So Ben, the super soldier that he was, when SAS ran their selection course his job was to be the intimidating bruiser on that course,' Russell said. 'His job was to go in there and intimidate people and beast them and get in their face. And do you know someone he did that to? Andrew Hastie.'
Russell then recounted an incident involving Hastie, described as 'renowned within special forces folklore.' He said: 'There was an interesting incident in one of the role player scenarios in Andrew Hastie's course where he refused to go against his values and steal something from a village.'
Russell noted that the SAS selection board placed 'extremely heavy weight' on the opinions of patrol commanders and other non-commissioned officers. At the time, the SAS was struggling to recruit officers, Russell claimed, but Roberts-Smith recommended that Hastie fail the 21-day course.
'You've seen Andrew Hastie - he's a very well-presented, well-spoken, highly intelligent individual,' Russell said. 'Having him in an SASR beret - be it in a special operations liaison officer role or a troop commander role that could be mentored - was a risk they were willing to take regardless of the recommendations. There was a blood feud formed between those two gentlemen from that selection course.'
Daily Mail asked Hastie if he wished to respond to Russell's claims. Roberts-Smith declined to comment.
Hastie's Own Version of Events
Hastie provided his own account of meeting Roberts-Smith during the SAS selection process in a piece he wrote for The Australian in November 2020. 'Red rocky earth cut into our flesh, numbing our hands,' he wrote. 'It was well after midnight, perhaps 3am. Floodlights lit up the group. Cadence push-ups on bleeding knuckles in the dead of night is the sort of misery that either consumes you, or clarifies your sense of mission.'
He recalled that Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, fresh back from the Battle of Tizak, 'towered over us, the 25 officer candidates on the 2010 SASR selection course. His displeasure writ large in his menacing body language. He switched out our hand position from palms down to knuckles.'
Hastie wrote that Roberts-Smith told the group: 'You f***ing officers. You always take the easy option. Lower. Hold.' An eternity passed as their fatigued muscles trembled close to the ground. 'Raise!' Roberts-Smith commanded. 'The irony might have been lost on him, but not on me,' Hastie added. 'Humbling myself before Ben Roberts-Smith was not easy. Nor would be serving in the Special Air Service Regiment in the weeks, months and years ahead.'
Hastie recalled that 'moments like this over the following fortnight thinned the ranks of officers. Men, gifted in command and planning, departed on their own terms - withdrawing quietly. Others were removed by the directing staff. The rest of us pressed on, reaching a point of insanity in the final week. No food for days, almost no sleep, impossible physical tasks.'
Hastie finished selection on August 13 and wept when he called to tell his wife. 'I was cold, shivering and spent,' he wrote. 'I'd lost 12 kilograms in three weeks and I had no emotional reserves.'
Hastie's Career and Role in the Case
Hastie deployed to Afghanistan with the SAS in 2013 at the tail-end of the war. He retired from the Army as a captain in 2015 and was elected as the member for Canning in September that year. The Liberal leadership aspirant chaired the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence from 2017 to 2020 and spent two years as the shadow minister for defence. He strongly supported the Brereton Inquiry into war crimes allegedly committed by Australians in Afghanistan and criticised a toxic 'warrior' culture in special forces.
In March 2022, Hastie gave evidence in the Federal Court about encountering Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan when his onetime comrade sued the publisher for accusing him of war crimes. After Roberts-Smith was charged with five murders last month, Hastie said the father-of-two was entitled to the presumption of innocence but 'none of us are above the law.'
On Anzac Day, Hastie shared a picture on Instagram of himself and his young family attending a service in Perth. 'Remembering the fallen, honouring our veterans and ADF, a responsibility for all Australians, young and old. Lest we forget,' he captioned the photograph. One of the comments posted next to the image was from Roberts-Smith's partner Sarah Matulin: 'Yeah you're a traitor.'
Roberts-Smith's solicitor Karen Espiner told Nine the next day that Ms Matulin's comment was 'a mistake' made without her client's knowledge. Two days later, Hastie responded to Ms Matulin's attack during an interview on Sky News. 'It is what it is, and I really have nothing to add to it,' he said. 'Life goes on. I'm here with you this morning and keen to talk about more substantive issues.'
Hastie was then pressed on whether he regretted anything he had said or done regarding the Roberts-Smith case and was again guarded. 'I've been very careful about what I've said when I've had to give testimony, I've done it under oath, and again, that's all I have to say,' he said. 'I'm just very cautious given that a fair trial, the presumption of innocence and a few other legal principles are at stake here. I appeared as a witness in the Federal Court in the civil case, and there's a possibility I may do so as well in the trial ahead, so I'm very cautious here.'
It is not suggested that the evidence Hastie gave was in any way motivated by a recommendation by Roberts-Smith that Hastie fail the SAS selection course.
