Service honours will no longer be stripped from thousands of Special Forces personnel who served in Afghanistan.

Late Last year, Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, revealed that the ADF would consider revoking Meritorious Unit Citations for all Special Forces units with personnel involved in alleged war crimes identified in Inspector-General of the ADF (IGADF) Paul Brereton’s Afghanistan Inquiry report.

GEN Campbell’s announcement received fierce backlash from the community, prompting policymakers to call for the decision to be overturned.

Newly appointed Minister for Defence Peter Dutton has now stepped in, confirming that only personnel either convicted or administratively identified by Defence as implicated in alleged war crimes will have their honours stripped.