Corruption Watchdog Probes Mayor on Claimed Military Service

An Australian war veteran wears his medals, including a service medal from the Vietnam war (Far-L), at the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Service in Sydney on Aug. 18, 2016. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

The mayor of Townsville—the largest settlement in north Queensland and Northern Australia—is in trouble over claims he made about his military service during electioneering.

At the recent council election, Troy Thompson defeated Jenny Hill—the mayor for 12 years.

During the campaign, Mr. Thompson claimed he spent about five years with the Royal Australian Corps of Signals and the Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment.

But when challenged by the local newspaper, The Townsville Bulletin, he said he could not remember his service number.

That sparked a request by the Department of Local Government to the Office of the Independent Assessor (OIA) to investigate his record. It received that information, along with his service number, which was then “thoroughly considered ... as part of its assessment,” a spokesperson for the Office said.

“On May 24 the OIA referred the matter to the Crime and Corruption Commission [CCC] (the conduct of candidates is a matter for other agencies). The OIA will not be commenting further on this matter at this time.”

The newspaper reported that Mr. Thompson had completed a two-week recruit course in June 1991 before attending a reservist cooking course between July and December that year. It said there were no further courses or activities recorded from 1991 until his discharge in October 1993.

For his part, Mr. Thompson claimed on social media that he had subsequently received his military service number after being challenged on his defence history since Anzac Day.

“When I went to the Anzac parade, there were rumours that I wasn’t in the services, that I didn’t have a service number,” he said in a Facebook video last week.

He explained that he was wearing his father’s medals and not his own.

“I didn’t spend enough time in the reserves to get a medal. It is that simple. All I wanted to do was to demonstrate my father’s medals and how proud I was of him.

“Respectfully, you’ve got my service number. That ends the conversation. No more bad media. Let’s move forward.”

In the video, he claimed to have the support of “the Army, the heads of Army” and thanked “all the veterans and all the service [people]” who had also supported him.

Investigation Found ‘Nothing Alarming’: Mayor Thompson

Speaking to media, he said he was unconcerned by the involvement of the CCC.

“I’m not concerned. The assessor made it very clear that there was nothing that they could see that would be alarming to them,” he said.

“It was more of a case of some of these items were brought up pre-election and that is not something that is under their scope, so they now have to push it on to the next area until conclusion.”

He refused to discuss details of his military service, claiming to have conducted a three-hour exclusive interview with a commercial program.

“I’m withholding the information … which is well within my right,” he said.

Australia does not have a law specifically dealing with issues of “stolen valour”—where someone makes an untrue claim of military service or awards—and while Section 80A of the Defence Act 1903 prohibits anyone from representing “himself or herself to be a returned soldier, sailor or airman, and the representation is false” it applies only to claims of having “served abroad during any war.”

Townsville has a population of around 180,000 and is unofficially considered the capital of north Queensland. The city hosts a significant number of government, community and major business offices for the northern half of the state.

To date, there have been no findings against Mr. Thompson by the OIA or the CCC.