Secondly, unless I am mistaken, "fraternising" or sexual contact with another cadet on the base is an offence, and in her brief employment with the defence force, she was already up on charges for being drunk, and AWOL.

Shadow Minister with respect, do you realise that many servicemen on base, off duty, regularly enjoy their Friday or Saturday evening drinks, meet fellow servicewomen, conduct relationships and/or marry fellow servicewomen on the field or in administrative roles. Thousands.

This girl has not done anything wrong if media reports are accurate and off-duty from her training.

If the situation was reversed and a female ringleader slept with a fellow male cadet, videotaped the love?making and later showed it to her fellow female cadets, I would feel exactly the same and believe many fellow Australians would hold the same view.

This girl, and God bless her courage)has obviously been 'the one' chosen this powerful 2011 year, through her life journey, to non-intentionally (and I agree with you there SM) open up the can of worms exposing the truth and facts within certain parts of Defence that have required addressing for many years.

Administration at the top and at all senior levels who are policy making, need to update current legislation to include the elimination of ego type behaviour, cover-ups, adhere to public service codes, ethics and values that are written; it works both ways.

Great article Peter. Keep up the good work of defending whistleblowers wherever they are.

Your last post pretty much sums up my response to some of the above posts.

It is in the public interest to know and understand the state of the Defence Forces. In spite of all the rhetoric about noble causes, honour and character, there is not much of that to be seen within the ADF in the response to this girl's revelations.

Yes, I liked the article too. We need to protect whistleblowers like this poor cadet, not vilify her.

I wonder would we have so much carry on if it was a group of female cadets who had videotaped, and broadcasted, one of their female cadet friends having sex with a male cadet?
I would imagine it would be even worse!

Many misogynistic older men in the armed forces obviously still do not like having women in their ranks.
Maybe they saw this poor girl as a way to project all female armed forces staff as sluts?

They seemed to want to blame her for being an unwilling (unknowing) participant in a pornographic video.
They did not seem to have a problem with the man who wanted to star in a porn film with an unsuspecting woman, nor the sleazy men ('boys will be boys') who videotaped the sex and sent it on to be viewed by some other sick perverts!

They should all be charged with sexual assault as far as I am concerned

With Rhian and Ammonite, it's not the sex, it's the nastiness reflected in the texting prank.
Could you imagine having to rely on a sod like that in a combat situation.
You're in a trench and he's standing behind you, holding a bright neon sign with a downward pointing flashing green arrow to identify you for the enemy?!
I hate gutlessness, but suppose the age of the dingbats must be taken into account.
But I don't like the idea of defence as a home for morons and sociopaths, rather than rational human beings capable of a sense of proportion and reality, hence able to a good job soldiering. Watching teev the other night, unimpressed by footage of US troops in Iraq herding civilians into a closed space to cut them down for the fun of it from choppers, where's the "character" in that?

Peter Bowden is having great difficulty in reading.

My point was not that a serious offence had not taken place, but that running to the media was not an act of whistle blowing, as the incident was already known to the authorities and was in the beginning of an investigation.

Secondly that in her 3 weeks as a cadet she had committed 3 offences, 2 of which were unrelated to the incident, for which the minister of defence called for her not to be disciplined for.

While I agree with you that her transgressions don't make what was done to her correct (and I said so) by the same logic, what was done to her does not excuse her.

Peter before you go blasting away, make sure you have a target, and not figments of your imagination.

There is an aged old dictum which says: " the only females that enlist in the services today, are Bitches, butch's, dikes, whores and romantics looking for a husband to pay the Bills ".

How many delusional Parents in this age of Enlightenment, prosperity and opportunity can condone their siblings enlisting in the ADF, is beyond reasonable comprehension ? Especially, as the Skype Affair scuttles any credibility in the bonehead honcho's, who hold the lives of so many, in their " blokey ", testosterone charged, juvenile, misogynist, boozy-filled, homophobic, opaque Faulty-towers environment ? Indeed.

That poor Kate became the latest sex victim caught on camera, morphed into Oz's first Camilla-gate, in all it's squalid buffoonery.

America"s DADT ( don't ask, don't tell ) Act, hasn't imploded on us yet. Only because in our Services, transparency is verboten, and the fags, and dykes, are tolerated, provided they keep it discreet. So horrendously prevalent is it in the Marine Corps, Navy and even at West Point, the Joint Chief of Staff, are egregiously dismayed.

Defense Minister Smith undoubtedly stirred the possum with too much agro. It will be his undoing, as any time now, Gillard will shunt him off to another Planet-portfolio, where he can do NO harm. Another accident prone Peter Garrett.

Even as Women serve in the Military, in most developed Countries in the World, few are committed to battle fronts, exposed to the fury of RPG's, EID's etc trauma. In Vietnam, people like Little Patty, Lorraine Desmond, Denise Drysdale etc entertained and provided succor to oversexed, booze-ridden, sex starved aussie males.