General Angus Campbell DSC, the chief of the Australian Defence Force, has commissioned the former Bishop to the Forces, the Rt. Rev. Tom Frame, to conduct an inquiry into allegations that elite combat units had developed a toxic culture that facilitated the commission of war crimes.
The internal inquiry follows the release of an Inspector-General’s report on 55 allegations of war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan since 1999.
General Campbell, himself a former member of the Australian SAS, commissioned the report to see what had led to the coursening of elite military units deployed in Afghanistan.
Upon his appointment as Bishop to the Armed Forces in 2001, Bishop Frame became the youngest Anglican bishop in Australia. He served in that post until 2006 when he became director of St Mark’s National Theological Centre of Charles Sturt University in Canberra. In July 2014, he was appointed Director of the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society at the University of New South Wales and in 2017 was appointed the inaugural Director of the Howard Library.
The 16 Aug 2018 Bishop Frame relinquished his orders as a bishop, but remains a priest in good standing of the Anglican Church of Australia.
His report is expected to be released by 2022.
