Andrew L. Urban
“There is no dispute Roberts-Smith committed killings in Afghanistan. Indeed, it is for killing that he earned his Victoria Cross. But killing in wartime service is lawful and is not murder,” writes Noel Pearson.
Pearson writes: “The respondent media claimed Roberts-Smith committed killings in Afghanistan amounting to war crimes. They have presented witnesses, including former special forces soldiers who served with Roberts-Smith, who support the allegations against him. But this testimony only confirms the truth of killing. It does not and cannot confirm the truth of murder.”
Writing in The Australian today (April 11, 2026), Pearson has injected an argument that is destined to be part of Roberts-Smith’s defence, opening with an expression no doubt shared by many: “Poor bugger, Ben Roberts-Smith.”
“He is, in the court of public presumption, already guilty. He stands no chance of being afforded what our system of law once called its golden thread: innocence before proof of guilt. Roberts-Smith will be denied the presumption of innocence. There is no way he will receive a fair trial. It simply is not possible now.” Hard to argue with that…
“In 2022, in an opinion piece in this paper (“War crime allegations must be tested in the right forum”), I made the argument that the problem with proceedings before Justice Anthony Besanko in the Federal Court at the time was that, in the words of Melbourne barrister Matt Collins, it was “a war crimes trial masquerading as defamation proceedings”.
But Pearson falls into a political black hole when he says : “My motivations are different from Gina Rinehart, Kerry Stokes and other right-wingers defending Roberts-Smith who are animated by culture war instincts and agendas. My concern is injustice. I should be ashamed to fall silent when injustice is afoot. I know better than most people that these right-wing culture warriors don’t care about injustice.” Culture wars??? That is self-aggrandising, holier-than-thou political/personal smear without merit and unsupported by evidence.
Noel Pearson is a director of Cape York Partnership, Good to Great Schools Australia and Fortescue.