Liberal Senator Jim Molan says it is “quite feasible” the changes to military citations were unconnected to the Brereton report, adding he was “not a great believer in conspiracies” and believed the information should be taken at face value.
His comment comes as serving special forces soldiers and veterans accused the Morrison Government of planning to strip meritorious service awards months before the Brereton report became public after it was revealed the Queen signed off on changes to military citations only months prior to the release of the report.
Responding to these accusations, the Ministry of Defence said the change to the military citations were not prompted by prior knowledge of the Brereton report, but were instead the final act for a group of amendments moved in 2014.
“It is quite a feasible answer,” Mr Molan said.
“I’m not a great believer in conspiracies.
“Invariably, conspiracy’s go appallingly wrong so I think I would take this at face value and stop worrying about that there’s some great conspiracy to pull down someone, somewhere in relation to something.
“These are pretty straightforward issues and no one handles anything perfectly the first time, and I think that’s what we’re seeing now.”