WHAT WAS CLAIMED
The government has spent $318 million investigating Ben Roberts-Smith.
OUR VERDICT
Misleading. The figure includes dozens of war crimes investigations, not just those involving Roberts-Smith.
AAP FACTCHECK - Ben Roberts-Smith's arrest over alleged war crimes has triggered misleading claims online that the government has spent $318 million investigating the former SAS soldier.
However, the figure covers 53 investigations into war crimes in Afghanistan involving numerous Australian soldiers, not just Roberts-Smith.
The Victoria Cross recipient has been charged with murdering or ordering the murders of five unarmed detainees in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Facebook posts are claiming the government has spent more than $300 million investigating him alone.
"Absolutely disgusted," one post reads.
"$318 MILLION spent chasing down Ben Roberts-Smith, a living Victoria Cross recipient and Australia's most decorated soldier."
Another post stated: "$318 million spent by his government to try to destroy him and still no conviction".
"Why must we destroy our war heroes?"
The posts appear to be misinterpreting a $318 million figure published by The Nightly in October 2025.
In the article, journalist Aaron Patrick reported that the government had allocated $318 million over a decade to investigate 19 Australian soldiers for alleged crimes in Afghanistan.
Mr Patrick told AAP FactCheck that the sum in his article covers all those investigations, not just those involving Roberts-Smith.
This includes the total budget allocated to the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI), the agency tasked with probing alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
Mr Patrick said the $318 million figure also included the cost of the 2016-2020 Brereton Inquiry into allegations of war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.
That inquiry cost $7.24m, according to the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force's annual report (page 4).
The Brereton report identified 25 Australian Defence Force personnel involved in 23 incidents where there was credible information that the war crime of murder had been committed, resulting in 39 deaths (p28-29).
The Morrison government then established the OSI to investigate the alleged war crimes identified in the report.
Budget documents show that the government has allocated $320.5 million to the OSI from its inception through the 2025/26 financial year.
The OSI told AAP FactCheck it had only spent $231 million of that budget between January 2021 and March 2026
The funds have covered 53 investigations, 39 of which are no longer active, as of April 2026, according to a statement from the OSI and Australian Federal Police (AFP).
The two agencies said the inactive cases had been comprehensively investigated, but they didn't find enough evidence to charge anyone with a war crime.
Two former soldiers have been charged to date, Roberts-Smith and another, who is due to face trial for murder in 2027.
The AFP and OSI said 10 investigations remain active.
Paul Taucher, a legal historian on war crimes at Murdoch University, said the OSI's budget covers all of its investigations, rather than solely the Roberts-Smith probe.
"Any other reading of the evidence points to either wilful misrepresentation of the data, or a failure to plainly read the clear statements of the OSI, AFP and budget," Dr Taucher told AAP FactCheck.
He said each of the OSI's investigations has cost money, regardless of the outcome.
"It is reasonable to conclude that criminal investigations which do not result in charges still consume financial resources," Dr Taucher said.
It is not known exactly how much the OSI has spent on the Roberts-Smith case.
Other government funds have been spent probing the former SAS soldier, outside the OSI and Brereton Inquiry.
The AFP has reportedly been investigating him since June 2018, according to a Sydney Morning Herald article and a parliamentary library chronology.
AAP FactCheck asked the AFP how much it had spent on the Roberts-Smith case before the OSI's establishment, but it declined to comment.
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