The Brereton inquiry found “credible” evidence to implicate 25 current or former Australian defence force personnel in the alleged unlawful killing of 39 individuals and the cruel treatment of two others. When announcing his response to the inquiry report in November, the chief of defence force, Angus Campbell, said units “live and fight as a team”. “With this in mind, I have accepted the inspector general’s recommendation and will write to the governor general requesting he revoke the meritorious unit citation for Special Operations Task Groups who served in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2013,” Campbell said at the time. But within weeks the government signalled a rethink of that decision. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said in late November that “no decisions have been made on that”.