'YEAH YOU'RE A TRAITOR' | Liberal MP Andrew Hastie drops explosive claim about Ben Roberts-Smith
A long-running personal feud between Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith and Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has been thrust back into the spotlight.
The latest revelations come from former 2nd Commando Regiment platoon commander Heston Russell, who told the Karl Stefanovic Show that Roberts-Smith — then a Medal for Gallantry-decorated SAS corporal — had recommended Hastie should fail the elite regiment's gruelling 21-day selection course in July 2010.
Russell described Roberts-Smith's role on that selection course as that of "the intimidating bruiser" — a soldier whose job it was to break down candidates, expose weakness and feed back recommendations to the selection board.
"His job was to go in there and intimidate people and beast them and get in their face," Russell said.
"And do you know someone he did that to? Andrew Hastie."
Hastie was 27 at the time — an Australian Defence Force Academy graduate who had already commanded a troop of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and served in Afghanistan a year earlier.
Roberts-Smith was 32, a battle-hardened SAS patrol commander fresh from the June 2010 Battle of Tizak — the engagement that would later see him awarded the Victoria Cross.
Russell said the friction between the two men was etched into special forces folklore by an incident on the course itself.
"There was an interesting incident in one of the role player scenarios in Andrew Hastie's course where he refused to go against his values and steal something from a village," Russell said.
Russell said the SAS selection board placed "extremely heavy weight" on the opinions of patrol commanders and senior non-commissioned officers — meaning a negative recommendation from someone of Roberts-Smith's stature carried considerable weight.
But the regiment was struggling at the time to recruit officers, and the board ultimately overruled Roberts-Smith's recommendation, accepting Hastie into the unit.
"You've seen Andrew Hastie — he's a very well-presented, well-spoken, highly intelligent individual," Russell said.
"Having him in an SASR beret — be it in a special operations liaison officer role or a troop commander role that could be mentored — was a risk they were willing to take regardless of the recommendations."
"There was a blood feud formed between those two gentlemen from that selection course."
Hastie's own account
The MP for Canning has previously written about his confrontation with Roberts-Smith on that selection course, in a piece for The Australian published in November 2020.
"Red rocky earth cut into our flesh, numbing our hands," Hastie wrote.
"It was well after midnight, perhaps 3am. Floodlights lit up the group."
"Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, fresh back from the Battle of Tizak, towered over us, the 25 officer candidates on the 2010 SASR selection course."
"His displeasure writ large in his menacing body language."
Hastie recalled Roberts-Smith berating the officer candidates for taking "the easy option," and switching their push-up hand position to bleeding knuckles.
"Humbling myself before Ben Roberts-Smith was not easy," Hastie wrote.
He passed the course on August 13 — having lost 12 kilograms over three weeks — and recalled weeping when he phoned his wife to tell her.
The shadow over the Roberts-Smith case
Hastie went on to deploy to Afghanistan with the SAS in 2013 at the tail-end of the war.
He retired from the Army as a captain in 2015 and was elected to federal parliament that September.
He has since been one of the most vocal advocates for the Brereton Inquiry into Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, repeatedly criticising what he described as a toxic "warrior" culture in special forces.
In March 2022, Hastie gave evidence in the Federal Court during Roberts-Smith's failed defamation case against Nine newspapers.
The MP recounted encountering Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan and supported aspects of the publisher's reporting.
Roberts-Smith was charged on April 7 this year with five counts of "war crime — murder," allegedly committed during his SAS service in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
He has consistently and emphatically denied any unlawful killings, and is presumed innocent of all charges. The 47-year-old is yet to face trial.
'Yeah you're a traitor'
The simmering feud burst into public view on Anzac Day, after Hastie posted a family photograph on Instagram from a Perth dawn service.
"Remembering the fallen, honouring our veterans and ADF, a responsibility for all Australians, young and old. Lest we forget," Hastie captioned the post.
Among the comments was a sharp message from Roberts-Smith's partner Sarah Matulin: "Yeah you're a traitor."
Roberts-Smith's solicitor Karen Espiner later told Nine the comment was "a mistake" made without her client's knowledge.
Hastie addressed the attack two days later in a Sky News interview, refusing to escalate.
"It is what it is, and I really have nothing to add to it," he said.
"Life goes on."
Pressed on whether he regretted anything he had said or done regarding Roberts-Smith, Hastie remained measured.
"I've been very careful about what I've said when I've had to give testimony, I've done it under oath, and again, that's all I have to say."
"I'm just very cautious given that a fair trial, the presumption of innocence and a few other legal principles are at stake here.
I appeared as a witness in the Federal Court in the civil case, and there's a possibility I may do so as well in the trial ahead, so I'm very cautious here."
It remains unclear whether Hastie — whose electorate of Canning takes in Mandurah, just south of the SAS's Perth base — will be called to give evidence for the prosecution if Roberts-Smith stands trial.
It is not suggested Hastie's evidence in the civil case was motivated in any way by Roberts-Smith's recommendation that he fail the SAS selection course.
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