{"id":18122,"date":"2015-02-02T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T19:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=18122"},"modified":"2015-02-02T19:32:58","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T08:32:58","slug":"the-canberra-officer-project-9-the-slouch-hat-mystique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-canberra-officer-project-9-the-slouch-hat-mystique\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canberra officer project (9): the slouch-hat mystique"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PROBABLY<\/a>The slouch-hat mystique has great power in Australia. We\u2019re about to salute a full-force expression of the slouch-hat aura as the centenary of Gallipoli commemorates the ANZAC creation moment.<\/p>\n

These columns on the Canberra officer<\/a>\u2014military leaders made to thrive in the Canberra system\u2014need to discuss the power effects of \u2018legend\u2019 as the symbols and stories of history are a potent element of any politics.<\/p>\n

Tony Abbott got his symbols and his history wrong when he gave an Australian knighthood to the Queen\u2019s husband. Yet the slouch-hat mystique is a sub-story of the Prime Minister\u2019s \u2018knightmare\u2019. Abbott got grudging acceptance and praise for knighting two former Defence Force chiefs. Sir Peter Cosgrove and Sir Angus Houston are great Australians and their standing reflects the role and reputation of the ADF they led. Abbot misunderstood. What he could give to the ADF he could not give to Prince Philip\u2014in the eyes of the Oz polity and much of the public.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s modern military is valued for what it does and what it\u2019s been. It\u2019s a strong brew that offers the Canberra officer a unique asset. As an example of this, read Tony Abbott<\/a> on the first six months of his prime ministership, nominating the most rewarding area of the job:\u00a0\u2018I suppose, being a fairly traditional person, the contact with the military at every level, from the service chiefs to the squadies that I\u2019ve been lucky enough to do PT with, has been a special highlight.\u2019<\/p>\n

Both sides of Australian politics talk like that. Abbott\u2019s just as enthusiastic as his mentor, John Howard. Julia Gillard started her trek to become the 27th PM of Oz as an organiser for Socialist Forum, but lined up with the Libs in her embrace of the ADF. One expression of Gillard\u2019s commitment was attending the funerals of 24 soldiers killed in Afghanistan\u2014following the custom established by Howard.<\/p>\n

Our leaders channel their people. Surveying attitudes to Defence<\/a>, Charles Miller concludes that \u2018the men and women of Australia\u2019s armed forces can take pride in the fact that they have more backing from their home society than almost any other military in the developed world\u2019. Miller cites the 2005\u20132008 World Values Survey showing Australians are the most fervent in the Anglosphere in embracing their military: 84.7% of Australians had \u2018great\u2019 or \u2018quite a lot\u2019 of confidence in the ADF; US (82.8%), UK (78.6%), New Zealand (72.5) and Canada (72%).<\/p>\n

Constantly telling your military they\u2019re special means they come to believe they are; no bad thing for a warrior ethos, but the mystique also works on the Canberra battleground. Compared to public servants, the profession of arms gives Canberra officers several layers of extra protection from politicians. It\u2019s a lot harder to sack a top general than a top public servant. On taking office, Abbott dismissed<\/a> three departmental secretaries and announced the Treasury secretary would go the same way within a year. The executions galvanised Canberra but caused hardly a ripple in the rest of Oz.<\/p>\n

If the new leader had done the same thing to the CDF or one of the service chiefs, he\u2019d have faced an avalanche of questions. The mystique means the PM\u2019s sword can knight CDFs, but it\u2019d be dangerous to use the sword in any other way.<\/p>\n

Defence Ministers learn the costs of biffing rather than embracing the ADF. In 2011, Labor\u2019s Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, launched multiple inquiries into ADF culture, including the Skype sex scandal<\/a> at the Defence Force Academy. Smith lamented that \u2018the single biggest challenge we have in Defence is to improve, to make much better personal and institutional accountability.\u2019<\/p>\n

The single biggest challenge! When a politician calls for \u2018accountability\u2019 they\u2019re attacking poor performance, but the Canberra code reads this as pressure on an institution that won\u2019t do as it\u2019s told. For the pollies, the mystique has problems as well as its many uses.<\/p>\n

During Australia\u2019s longest war in Afghanistan, four Australian Prime Ministers used the same refrain<\/a> when talking about a deeply unpopular mission: yes, it\u2019s tough, but we must support our troops. Oh, and the alliance. (For Australia, ANZAC and Alliance are two of the most important \u2018A\u2019 words.)<\/p>\n

To see the Canberra officer effect in action, come to a Parliamentary committee room as Labor\u2019s shadow Defence Minister, Stephen Conroy, accuses<\/a> a senior military officer of being part of a \u2018political cover-up\u2019. Conroy\u2019s attack on Lieutenant-General Angus Campbell, head of Operation Sovereign Borders, was a blunder and Conroy had to apologise. Senators regularly monster public servants; it\u2019s power expressed as sport. Uniforms, though, require more respectful treatment.<\/p>\n

Along with all the popular rage about Conroy being rude to an officer, there was a perceptive analysis from Professor Judith Brett<\/a>, author of\u00a0Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class<\/em>. Hear Brett, a great member of the Oz chattering classes with a deep understanding of our political culture and institutions, on this manifestation of the slouch-hat mystique:<\/p>\n

Conroy was rude and his motives questionable, but his accusation was half right. Campbell and his fellow officers are not intentional agents in a cover-up, but there is no doubt that the government is hiding behind the military\u2019s near-immunity from public criticism to deflect public scrutiny of Operation Sovereign Borders. It is not good for democracy to hold the military beyond criticism. It is not even good for the military, for it discourages the robust criticism needed for it to remain at its best.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Near immunity from public criticism? There\u2019s a mystique with power.<\/p>\n

Graeme Dobell<\/em><\/a> is the ASPI journalist fellow. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The slouch-hat mystique has great power in Australia. We\u2019re about to salute a full-force expression of the slouch-hat aura as the centenary of Gallipoli commemorates the ANZAC creation moment. These columns on the Canberra officer\u2014military …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":18126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[342,782,64,1122,376,344,132],"class_list":["post-18122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-canberra","tag-chief-of-the-defence-force","tag-civil-military-relations","tag-knighthood","tag-politics","tag-public-service","tag-tony-abbott"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Canberra officer project (9): the slouch-hat mystique | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-canberra-officer-project-9-the-slouch-hat-mystique\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Canberra officer project (9): the slouch-hat mystique | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The slouch-hat mystique has great power in Australia. 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