Radio station 2GB plans to air an interview between its Breakfast host Ben Fordham and Ben Roberts-Smith ahead of the disgraced commando’s landmark trial where he faces five charges of the war crime of murder.
The interview has already been recorded, but an air date is yet to be determined by the conservative talkback station, now owned by pubs and pokies billionaire Arthur Laundy and his family, two sources with knowledge of the matter not authorised to speak publicly said.
The interview is also subject to heavy involvement and scrutiny from lawyers to ensure nothing that is put to air prejudices the upcoming trial.
A spokesperson for 2GB declined to comment. Roberts-Smith’s lawyer, Karen Espiner, also declined to comment on his behalf. Fordham was approached for comment.
The interview of Roberts-Smith, who has become a figure championed by sections of far-right politics has been highly sought after. Former radio host-turned-solo live streamer Kyle Sandilands claimed in an interview with this masthead in August that he had secured the Roberts-Smith interview.
He claimed he told sacked Nine presenter Karl Stefanovic “I’ve got him locked” as the pair were both chasing the interview. However, representatives for Roberts-Smith denied this was the case, and no such interview has since aired.
Stefanovic has re-circulated conspiracy theories that Roberts-Smith was “set up”, calling the crimes he has now been charged with “targeted adjustment”.
Roberts-Smith has been shopping around an interview to several media outlets, one of the sources said. Airing it will pose significant challenges for 2GB as Roberts-Smith faces an upcoming trial where he stands accused of executing Afghan detainees while on deployment. He denies all the charges.
Roberts-Smith is not expected to be paid for the interview.
He was granted permission by a judge to travel from Brisbane to Canberra over the past weekend to attend an event marking 25 years since the Afghanistan War began.
As a Victoria Cross recipient, he arrived and departed in a Commonwealth car and signed autographs and took photos with other people at the event.
Roberts-Smith has become a fierce point of division in right-wing politics, particularly in the context of One Nation’s rise in the polls. Party leader Pauline Hanson has been a vocal supporter of Roberts-Smith. Polling in August revealed that, after Hanson, Roberts-Smith is the most popular figure among supporters of One Nation.
He also became a flashpoint for a public feud between Hanson, One Nation and Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, who, as a former SAS captain himself, was subpoenaed to testify against Roberts-Smith, alongside more than 20 other combat veterans and SAS witnesses during a defamation trial.
Roberts-Smith was arrested in Sydney in April while coming off a flight from Brisbane, where he lives. His arrest followed a joint investigation between the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), with the alleged offences carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
He stands accused of executing or directing fellow soldiers to execute Afghan prisoners during a period spanning 2006 to 2012 in Afghanistan.
The war crimes trial follows an unsuccessful attempt to sue The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation over a series of articles alleging that he had committed war crimes. He lost the case and his appeal in the Federal Court, and High Court ultimately backed the decision made by a Federal Court judge in 2023, that the allegations had been proven by the mastheads to a civil standard of the balance of probabilities.
2GB, 3AW and two other talkback stations in Brisbane and Perth were sold by Nine to Laundy and his family earlier this year and now operate under the name Tapt Media. Nine is the owner of this masthead.
Last week, during an interview with Fordham, the commissioner of the Australian Federal Police Krissy Barrett defended the “routine arrest” of Roberts-Smith at Sydney Airport. She pushed back on assertions from the radio host that it could have put other passengers on the plane at risk if the former commando had resisted arrest.
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