RESTORING confidence in the variety of military justice the Australian Defence Force metes out to the men and women in its ranks will not be easy. While the establishment of an Independent Military Commission to try criminal offences and a special investigation unit will go some way to addressing the military's obvious failure to handle serious allegations of wrongdoing, it is now incumbent on the ADF to show it can forge the cultural change needed to make the new system work. It has taken six inquiries in less than a decade into the military's rough system of justice to force the overhaul Defence Minister Robert Hill announced on Wednesday. The most recent, a 20-month bipartisan Senate investigation, was set up in October 2003 after The Australian uncovered extensive mistreatment, mismanaged investigations into allegations of abuse, and a series of suicides within the ADF. The latter included the suicide of 15-year-old air force cadet Eleanore Tibble, who hanged herself in a backyard wood shed after a military inquiry into her relationship with an instructor.

The Senate report, handed down in June, was scathing in its criticism of justice ADF-style. It called for the military to be stripped of powers to investigate criminal behaviour within its ranks, concluding the system had failed to protect soldiers from violence, abuse and racism. The new system is designed to prevent top brass pressuring military courts. The commission will be separate from the ADF chain of command, the most serious criminal cases will be passed to police, and a civilian judge will be appointed to inquire into suicides.

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