There is a question mark over the nation’s second-highest ranked military officer, Ray Griggs, over allegations that he had an affair with the wife of a navy petty officer, and that she benefited from the relationship with two rapid promotions to commander.
Internal inquiries and an investigation by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force have cleared Griggs of wrongdoing, Defence Force chief Mark Binskin told a Senate inquiry in February.
Because the ADF refuses to make the reports public, we don’t know if there was any connection between the inquiries and Griggs’ peculiar action on November 24 last year when he signed an order dispensing with the age-old military protocol prohibiting sexual relationships through the command chain.
But South Australian crossbench Senator Rex Patrick, a former navy contractor, and the only politician game to raise questions over the Griggs affair, told Parliament last week: “Given the bubbling controversy over his own personal circumstances, was Admiral Griggs the right person to sign off on such a policy?”
Good question.
Griggs’ new “Required Behaviours in Defence” policy removes a reference to sexual relationships “where a superior and subordinate command or management relationship exists (which) is considered to be inappropriate in the workplace.”
Instead the new policy states: “Relationships are a natural result of human interaction and as such may not be inappropriate. However, they may have a direct impact on the effectiveness and morale of a team and need to be carefully managed.”
Further: “It is unlawful to treat a person less favourably at work because of a person’s … marital or relationship status.”
Vice-Admiral Ray Griggs during Senate Estimate. Defence is refusing to make public a report into events associated with a change in his marital status. (Pic: Gary Ramage)
So there you have it. Effectively a green light to command chain fraternisation. What an irony when the Prime Minister’s so-called ‘bonk ban’, instituted after the Joyce scandal, was based in part on a military convention which had been quietly deleted three months earlier.
In Senate Estimates, Patrick also tried to quiz Binskin on whether Griggs had started a relationship with Chloe Wootten (now Griggs) while he was Chief of Navy, and she worked in navy public relations.
Binskin said the inquiries showed “there had been no breach of defence policy and so I’d like to leave it there because we’re talking about family separation; it’s deeply personal”.
But there were holes in those inquiries, as Patrick pointed out.
For starters, Petty Officer Brodie Wootten, the sailor who lost his wife to his boss, was never asked to testify. You’d think it was worth asking him about the timing of the relationship.
Griggs’s ex-wife Kerrie certainly had interesting information for the IGADF investigation, including a cringe-worthy love letter found in a recycling bin which she believed suggested the affair was going on well before Griggs officially declared it in October 2014, by which time he had been promoted to Vice Chief of the Defence Force.
Furthermore, no texts or emails were trawled through to pinpoint the precise timing of the relationship, as happened in the Quaedvlieg inquiry.
No such scrutiny for Griggs. The Gillard appointee seems untouchable. Perhaps it is because he spends so much time virtue-signalling about diversity, LGTIQ, Islamophobia, Wear Purple Day, White Ribbon Day — you name it.
Griggs was responsible for appointing a naval “Islamic adviser”, Mona Shindy, and giving her an official navy Twitter account which she politicised by endorsing contentious views on Islamic extremism, questioning Australian foreign policy in Iraq and criticising Tony Abbott.
When quizzed last year about the debacle in Senate Estimates, Griggs launched a vacuous soliloquy to diversity: “We fight and win in teams … The team has to be cohesive, members of the team have to feel comfortable, members of the team have to feel valued and their perspective valued and you cannot do that unless you embrace a more inclusive approach and it’s not about political correctness, it’s about capability outcomes.”
As with former chief of army David Morrison, Griggs was “brodericked” under the command of Gillard defence minister Stephen Smith (the Labor MP, not the cricketer).
Smith knew the ADF was a hotbed of conservative voters so he set about a process of “cultural change”, elevating Griggs and hiring former sex discrimination commissioner Liz Broderick, at huge cost to morale.
The decision on the next commander of the defence force is expected in coming weeks. But, until these questions are satisfactorily answered, despite the warm relationship he enjoys with Defence Minister Marise Payne, Griggs should not be in the running for the most prestigious leadership role in the nation.
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