In late 2016 – nearly 40 years since women were first allowed to enlist for active duty in the Australian Army – female soldiers are being given the option to join their male colleagues in all elements of frontline combat.
Nevertheless, when most people envision an Australian soldier, they see a young, white, male, ANZAC ‘Digger’ charging up the cliffs of Gallipoli. It’s the heroic image emblazoned in our minds since childhood.
Alas, this depiction has a dark side, one ingrained into the culture of armed services.
That was something General David Morrison vowed to change.
A LACK OF DIRECTION
The armed services were in David Morrison’s blood from birth. His father, Alan, was a Major General in the Army. Traveling with his family from posting to posting, David experienced life in a range of Australian cities, but had little chance to cement himself until a move to Canberra in his mid-teens.
Perhaps that explains why General Morrison’s interests lay not in the army, but in the arts. He pulled out of his law degree at the Australian National University to focus on his passion, conceding in an interview with Canberra Times that while he spent more time galavanting on the stage in Gilbert & Sullivan musicals than studying, “those four pretty chaotic years were filled with eclectic life-learning”.
In 1979, upon graduation, he joined the army. It was meant to be temporary; a way to save enough money to leave Canberra.
Trying to reform his chaotic lifestyle to fit into the rigid protocols of army routine was initially a shock for General Morrison. He remembers his father worrying that he would end up losing his way and “corrupting” the armed services.
The result was very much the opposite. General Morrison soon embraced the army, and what he perceived as its culture of inclusiveness. He rose quickly through the ranks, transitioning from a Brigade Major in 1992 to Chief of Army in 2011, marking the first time both a father and his son had reached the position of General in the history of the Australian armed services.
DEFINING CHANGE
At the same time he was appointed Chief, the army was in the midst of one of its most public scandals in decades.
21 year old Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) cadet Daniel McDonald was charged with recording a sexual encounter with a female colleague and streaming it to friends on campus via Skype. The victim, identified as ‘Kate’, left the army, telling the media that the experience had “ruined her life”.
The incident shook General Morrison’s faith in the armed forces. Even as laws and protocols were being updated to embrace diversity in the army, the institution’s facade was cracking to reveal what much of the general public expected to see: a boy’s club where sexual abuse and patriarchal ideologies were just another way male soldiers ‘proved’ their strength.
At the same time McDonald and another cadet were found guilty of their crimes and discharged from ADFA, Defence Minister Steven Smith announced that women would be allowed to serve in frontline combat roles by the end of 2016.
It was the beginning of change, a legitimate move towards equality…but things would get worse before they got better.
“IF THAT DOES NOT SUIT YOU, THEN GET OUT”
So was General Morrison’s order to those in the armed services who refused to accept the value of females in the army not only as soldiers, but as fellow human beings.
The video (which can be seen below) came in June 2013, when General Morrison commissioned an investigation of the ‘Jedi Council’, a group of up to 90 individuals – mainly Army personnel – who were sharing videos and images of women while they were having sex with them.
General Morrison’s proactive approach was a giant leap forward for the armed services, which had a tendency to deal with such issues out of the public eye, and was applauded by the likes of Macquarie University professor Catharine Lumby, who said “We can’t say we’ll never see this kind of thing again, as awful as it is, but by getting rid of these guys, it sends a pretty strong message to any young man coming into the ADF who thinks this is OK.”
Three months after the speech, six army officers, including high ranking personnel, were discharged from service.
The incident defined General Morrison as a figurehead of equality across the world, especially in America, where the media contrasted his video with the impotent measures the U.S. military had taken to deal with similar cases.
When he spoke the following year at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, he warned that armies across the world could not define values separate from those of civil society at risk of “(doing) nothing to distinguish the solider from the brute”. It was an image of service people – those serving in the past, present, and future – that he would not allow to stand.
ENCOURAGING POTENTIAL
In 2016, General Morrison was named Australian of the Year for his work in striving for gender equality. Though he retired from the army in May of 2015, he continues his pursuit for inclusiveness not just in the armed forces, but for all of Australia.
While the topic of gender initially brought attention to his mission, General Morrison has also leant his voice to those persecuted or treated as ‘less than’ due to their religion or ethnicity.
“For reasons beyond education, or professional qualifications, or willingness to contribute, or a desire to be a part of our society and our community, too many of our fellow Australians are denied the opportunity to reach their potential,” General Morrison said during his acceptance speech.
“It happens because of their gender, because of the god they believe in, because of their racial heritage, because they’re not able-bodied, because of their sexual orientation, and we as a nation … should be able to give them the chance to reach their potential.”
You can view General Morrison’s video on discriminating behaviour in the armed services below.