There’s some real charmers at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) here in Canberra. This week’s scandal in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) concerns a female cadet who found out that the fellow cadet she had sex with last week thought it jolly good fun to film it on his webcam and Skype it to some of his mates in another room. Not only that, they took some still photos and later passed them around more of their mates.
So, not satisfied with bragging to the boys about scoring a root, he decides they need to have a video of the happy event. Why? I’m guessing its so they can savour him in action later on while they’ve all whacking off around the campfire or something.
The girl says she found out about what happened when she was contacted by Defence investigators who were alerted by another cadet. She said.
"It was like my whole world came crashing down around me,"
"They had to read the statements that the boys had to make and I actually threw up. I had to be asked to be excused from the interview because it made me physically ill."
The handling of the aftermath of the incident by the ADFA and ADF authorities has attracted plenty of criticism, including from Defence Minister Stephen Smith. He has said of it:
"I can’t think of a greater betrayal of trust of a colleague in the workplace than the suggestions that have been made,"
"Once that trust has been destroyed then it is very difficult, if not impossible, for the person who has broken that trust to remain as a Defence Force personnel member."
Then he really hooked into them, over revelations that the Academy held a separate hearing into other minor disciplinary matters involving the girl, the day after the other matters came to light. No pulling punches here, he said:
"On her own admission she is in a deeply distressed state. It is either in the realm of inappropriate, insensitive or completely stupid to hold such a hearing on a day like today.
Then things got even better, or worse, depending on your perspective. Apparently some of her fellow cadets have decided to “punish” her for speaking out, by coating her bedroom door with shaving cream, and reportedly she has been on the receiving end of whispers of “slut” among other things. Lovely! And these people are going to be given guns and trained to kill people.
But while her ostracism by fellow cadets is bad enough, there have also been reports that she was ordered to apologise publicly to her fellow cadets for going public and humiliating them – although there have been subsequent denials of this by ADF officials.
And then the Minister has been criticised for making statements critical of the ADF and its handling of the incident. Such comments, from the Defence lobby, largely retired military officers, say plenty about the ignorance of the ADF in understanding they have a serious problem.
I think its all fairly simple really. The girl screwed up, and should be dealt with for fraternisation which is against ADF and ADFA rules. Minor offence in the scheme of things, punishment a few days in the naughty corner. The male cadets, however, have committed an unconscionable breach of trust, and in doing so demonstrated beyond doubt their unsuitability to ever be officers in the ADF. The only punishment for them is to be expelled from ADFA and discharged from the service. No ifs, no buts, what they did is so far across whatever line anyone cares to draw about acceptable behaviour there is no way they can be excused.
I’ll wait and see what happens. My suspicion is that the incident basically destroys the woman’s career. There is enough corporate memory in the Defence organisation that a significant number of its members will always bear against her that she was the Skype video girl and couldn’t take it, then dobbed on her mates and caused them to lose their careers. I expect her position in the services is pretty much untenable.
I’m also interested to see whether the ADF comes to a realisation that incidents like this are not one-offs and isolated cases, but systemic ones. I’ll believe they are serious about reform and tackling the issues when I see a bunch of middle to senior ranking officers being sacked over things that people under their command do. A large dose of personal accountability might drive home to these guys that the treatment of women is something they need to take seriously, not pay lip service to.