The Smear
- Opened on fileOwn it or delete it
In Australian politics, reputation is the weapon. The traitor smear, the defamation writ, the character-assassination campaign: aimed at witnesses, veterans and the courts, and paid for by everyone downstream.
Fig. 02 / What happened
Fig. 03 / Who the record names
How we know
The exhibits sit beside the title above, each tied to the article that documented it. How evidence and sources are graded: evidence grade, source tiers.
What else is connected
Named in this case and in others. A count of where the record names them, not a finding about what they did.
From the desk
- Correction publishedThe pattern · The Smear
This section said the four cases run from 2019 to 2024. It now says 2018 to 2024: the earliest event in the survey, David Leyonhjelm’s remark in the Senate, was in June 2018, as the article’s own source records.
- Correction publishedWho pays · The Smear
This section said the Roberts-Smith litigation “cost up to A$25 million to defend”, which put the whole figure on the newspapers’ side. The up to A$25 million is the reported estimate of what the case as a whole cost, as this case’s article “The writ” records; the sentence now says so.
- Record: THE SMEAR opened as a case; a cartoon calling a war-crimes witness a traitor becomes a test of what the party that made it will ownOwn it or delete it · The SmearThe Smear · attended 10 September 2026
Read the desk note
ATTENDED 10 September 2026 (case opened: THE SMEAR, article 1 of four).
FINDING. On 23 July 2026, One Nation posted a nine-minute animated video, an episode of its “Please Explain” cartoon series, and pinned it to the top of Pauline Hanson’s X account. The cartoon calls Andrew Hastie, the Liberal MP for Canning and a former SAS captain, a “traitor” eight times, and separately a “gutless maggot”, over his sworn evidence in Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation action. On 9 September 2026, Hastie demanded One Nation “own it or delete it” and called Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce “lying cowards”. On 10 September 2026, Jacqui Lambie condemned the cartoon as “absolutely disgusting” and called Hanson a “bloody coward”, Barnaby Joyce said he had reached out to Hastie, and Hanson refused to delete the cartoon, calling it satire. Condemnation reached across party lines: Angus Taylor, Matt Canavan and Paul Scarr all said it should be removed.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Case opened. Article 1, “Own it or delete it”, published, covering the cartoon, Hastie’s ultimatum, One Nation’s response and the cross-party revolt. The case now carries one published article of four.
STILL OPEN: whether One Nation deletes the cartoon or defends it; what articles two, “The writ”, three, “Who pays”, and four, “The pattern”, in this case add.
NEXT DATE: none is fixed by any document read for this article.
- Record: THE SMEAR publishes article 2, the defamation case a court decided against Roberts-Smith and the criminal charges that followed itThe writ · The SmearThe Smear · attended 10 September 2026
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ATTENDED 10 September 2026 (case: THE SMEAR, article 2 of four).
FINDING. Ben Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient and before the charges now against him the most-decorated living Australian war veteran, sued The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over 2018 reporting that he was complicit in the murder of Afghans. The case became the most expensive defamation action in Australian history, estimated at up to A$25 million. On 1 June 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko found, on the balance of probabilities, the civil standard of proof, that four murder allegations were substantially true, twice at a compound known as Whiskey 108, once at Darwan and once at Chinartu, and that Roberts-Smith had lied to the court, colluded with his own witnesses, assaulted detained Afghan nationals and bullied junior colleagues. His appeal to the Full Federal Court was dismissed in May 2025. Andrew Hastie, one of 21 SAS veterans of the war in Afghanistan subpoenaed as a witness in that case, gave evidence of a rumour matching the Darwan finding; he was compelled by law, not a volunteer. On 7 April 2026, Roberts-Smith was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder over deaths between 2009 and 2012; he denies the allegations, which remain untested. The four civil findings and the five criminal charges are separate numbers on separate standards of proof, and this article keeps them distinct.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Article 2, "The writ", published, covering the defamation judgment, Besanko's findings, Hastie's subpoena and the 2026 charges.
STILL OPEN: the outcome of the criminal proceedings against Roberts-Smith; no trial date appears in any document read for this article.
NEXT DATE: none is fixed by any document read for this article.
- Record: THE SMEAR reads the mechanics of a cartoon war against who actually carries the costWho pays · The SmearThe Smear · attended 10 September 2026
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ATTENDED 10 September 2026 (case: THE SMEAR, article 3 of four).
FINDING. Read together, three dated instalments in this case describe a machine, not a personal dispute. On 1 June 2023, after years of litigation costing up to A$25 million, in the most expensive defamation case in Australian history, the newspapers that reported war crimes allegations against Ben Roberts-Smith won: the truth defence was upheld. On 9 April 2026, Andrew Hastie, one of 21 SAS veterans compelled to give evidence under subpoena in that litigation and now a witness ahead of a separate criminal trial, issued a statement urging Australians to respect the rule of law, the criminal justice system and the accused’s right to a presumption of innocence and a fair trial. On 9 and 10 September 2026 a cartoon branding Hastie a traitor, run eight times by a party targeting his own seat, drew his public demand it be deleted and, a day later, a warning from Senator Jacqui Lambie that any veteran weighing a vote for or candidacy with One Nation should think twice. Roberts-Smith now faces that separate criminal trial, five counts, which he denies; he is presumed innocent, and nothing in this record or this article says otherwise.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Article 3, "Who pays", published: the case’s argument piece, reading the mechanics set out in articles one and two against who actually carries their cost, the witness, the reporter, the court and the public. The case now carries three published articles of four.
STILL OPEN: the fourth article in this case, "The pattern", which the record does not yet contain.
NEXT DATE: none fixed by any document read for this article.
- Record: THE SMEAR surveys four defamation and career-ending cases in one articleThe pattern · The SmearThe Smear · attended 10 September 2026
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ATTENDED 10 September 2026 (case: THE SMEAR, article 4 of four, a survey piece).
FINDING. Four Australian defamation and career-ending matters, read court by court: Christian Porter discontinued his defamation action against the ABC on 31 May 2021 with no damages paid and no ABC apology, an allegation that was never tested in court and that Porter has always denied; Bruce Lehrmann sued Network Ten and lost, Justice Michael Lee finding on 15 April 2024, on the balance of probabilities, that he raped Brittany Higgins, after an earlier criminal trial was aborted with no verdict; John Barilaro sued a satirist and won, Justice Steven Rares ordering Google to pay him A$715,000 on 6 June 2022 over videos the judge found were racist hate speech, not protected satire; and Sarah Hanson-Young was defamed by David Leyonhjelm in 2018 and vindicated, winning A$120,000, upheld on appeal in March 2021. Every finding is attributed to its court and its standard of proof; every denial and acquittal in the record is noted.
ARTICLE. This is article 4 of 4 in THE SMEAR, a case about reputation as currency in Australian politics, the writ and the smear as its transactions.
STILL OPEN: this desk flags that the fact of Porter’s 2021 resignation from cabinet over a blind trust funding his legal costs is included on the available record but could not be independently confirmed beyond the source carrying the discontinuance story; it is marked in the references as pending confirmation.
NEXT DATE: none fixed by any document read for this article.