Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed the governing council of the Australian War Memorial after its members effectively overturned a judging panel’s decision to give a major literary award to a book on war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.

The judges chose veteran journalist Chris Masters’ Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes as the 2024 winner of the memorial’s Les Carlyon Literary Prize in December that year.

But six months later, on the basis there were inconsistencies between different versions of the criteria for the award, the council reinstated a rule that the prize could only be won by first-time authors, disqualifying Masters.

Disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith appealed all the way to the High Court and lost in his defamation case. Credit: Sam Mooy

Asked on Sunday wh

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