Did not passDefence & Security Introduced in the House of Representatives, 28 Aug 2025

Senate dropped bill to limit military medal appeals

The government wanted time limits on appeals when the Defence Force, Australia's military, refuses a medal. It also wanted to limit who can appeal. Veterans' groups and the appeal body itself pushed back. The bill was dropped in the Senate, Parliament's second house, in November 2025.

Official name: Defence Amendment (Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal) Bill 2025

Who it affects

• Veterans (people who served in the military) of older wars such as Vietnam and Korea: Most refused medals for their service could no longer be appealed.
• Supporters with no direct link to a veteran: They could no longer appeal a refused medal for someone else.
• Serving and former Defence Force members: They would have six months after a refusal to appeal, unless something very unusual got in the way.
• Families of veterans: Close family could still appeal for many medals, but some relatives such as cousins could not.

Medal appeals with no limits

Members of the Australian Defence Force can get medals for bravery or for great service. The law calls these honours. They can also get awards. These are medals for years of service, or for serving in a certain military operation.

Sometimes the Department of Defence says no to a medal. Then a person can ask the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal to look at it again. This is an independent body set up in 2011 to check these choices. We will call it the appeal body.

Right now anyone can appeal, at any time, for service going back to 3 September 1939. The government says this leads to reviews where everyone involved has died. Often there are few records left. It says many people who appeal have no link to the soldier or their family.

The Parliamentary Library works for all MPs and takes no side. Its guide to the bill says the appeal body got 527 proper appeals from 2008 to 30 September 2025. About one in three people who appealed got a good result.

Which medals count

The bill rewrote what the main words mean in the Defence Act. It split awards into two kinds.

Long service awards mark years served. One is the Defence Long Service Medal. Operation awards mark service in a certain military operation.

The new meanings made clear that extras added to a medal can also be appealed. These include clasps, bars and ribbons. The government's example is a refused bar for a Medal for Gallantry.

Some medals come from other countries. The law calls these foreign awards. These could only be appealed if they were named in detailed rules. The government writes those rules without a new vote in Parliament.

A 20-year limit on reviews

This limit covered bravery and service honours, operation awards and medals from other countries. A refusal could only be appealed if the first request came within 20 years of the operation ending. If there was no end date, the service itself had to be within 20 years.

The government's example is Operation Slipper in Afghanistan. It ended on 31 December 2014. A refused bravery medal for it could be appealed if the request came by 31 December 2034.

Operation Warden in East Timor ended on 10 April 2000. So a request made in 2025 could not be appealed.

The government could make the limit shorter than 20 years through its own detailed rules.

The government says 20 years is fair because witnesses and leaders are more likely to still be alive. It also says some modern medals did not exist in older wars. Giving them out now could be unfair to the soldiers who served beside them.

Age limit for long service

A refused long service medal could only be appealed if the person was under 100 years old when they asked. If they had died, the test was the age they would have been.

The government's example is a person born in 1953 who served from 1973 to 2003. They missed out on a clasp. A request made in 2040 could be appealed. A request by family in 2060 could not.

The government could set a lower age through its own detailed rules.

Cancelled medals

When Defence takes a medal away, that choice already cannot be appealed. But today a person can ask Defence to give the medal back. If Defence says no, they can appeal that.

The bill would stop this. The government says medals are often taken away for serious bad behaviour. It says those cases get careful checks.

Who could ask for review

For bravery and service honours, only the person who first asked Defence could appeal. They also had to be higher up in the soldier's chain of command, or a Defence Force member who saw what happened. The soldier, or their close family, had to agree.

For other medals, only the soldier or a close family member could appeal. If the soldier had died, the person who handles their will could also appeal. A will is a paper that says who gets a person's things after they die.

Say a local history fan asks for a medal for a soldier they have studied. Under the bill, they could not appeal if Defence said no.

Deadline and tribunal powers

Appeals would have to be made within six months of the Defence decision. The appeal body could allow more time if something very unusual got in the way. Today there is no deadline.

For bravery and service honours, the appeal body could only say if the decision fits the rules for that medal.

For other awards, it could no longer send a case back to someone else to decide. It could no longer make wider suggestions to the Minister for Defence Personnel, who looks after people in the military. It could still agree with the decision or swap it for a new one.

Yearly reports and regulations

The appeal body would have to give the Minister a report each year. The report would be shared with Parliament. It already puts out reports, but the law does not make it.

The government could write detailed rules about how the appeal body runs. These could cover how appeals work and what proof counts. A note said these rules could not tell the appeal body how to use its powers.

Who the rules would cover

Most changes only applied when the first request to Defence came after the law started. Cases already going would stay under the old rules.

The six-month deadline was different. It covered any appeal made after the start date, even if the first request was older.

The law would start on a date the government picked. At the latest, it would start six months after it was signed into law.

Taken off the Senate list

The government brought the bill into the House of Representatives on 28 August 2025. The House passed it on 3 September 2025. The Liberal and National parties (the Coalition) tried to change it. The House said no to their changes.

The bill went to the Senate, Parliament's second house, on 4 September 2025. A group of senators was asked to look into it.

On 24 November 2025 the Senate dropped it from its to-do list. The bill will not become law in this form.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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