EXCLUSIVE

THE Australian Defence Force has failed to properly investigate and punish dozens of serving members allegedly linked to a social media campaign designed to expose and intimidate homosexual personnel.

Senior ADF leaders and the office of the former defence minister John Faulkner received a formal complaint in August last year about a Facebook page created to expose what the page labelled "bum bandits getting around the ADF''. But eight months later the investigation into the page and the dozens of ADF personnel who signed on as "friends" has been shelved and none of the serving members associated with the gay-hate campaign has been disciplined.

One of those publicly targeted by the Facebook page, created under the pseudonym "Steve Austin" and featuring the Army's rising sun insignia, was Major Paul Morgan, an army psychologist who has served in Iraq.