THE RORT · DOSSIER · BEN ROBERTS-SMITHSTATUS · TRACKED
Andrew Hastie: named together in 3 articlesAndrew HastieJacqui Lambie: named together in 2 articlesJacqui LambieOne Nation: named together in 2 articlesOne NationBarnaby Joyce: named together in 1 articleBarnaby JoyceBridget McKenzie: named together in 1 articleBridget McKenzieKerry Stokes: named together in 1 articleKerry StokesNine: named together in 1 articleNinePauline Hanson: named together in 1 articlePauline HansonSeven West Media: named together in 1 articleSeven West MediaSydney Airport: named together in 1 articleSydney Airport
DOSSIER / ACTORPERSON · FORMER SAS SOLDIER, VICTORIA CROSS RECIPIENT

Ben Roberts-Smith

Status Tracked

Victoria Cross recipient and former SAS soldier. Brought the most expensive defamation case in Australian history and lost; a court found four murder allegations substantially true on the civil standard. Charged in April 2026 with five counts of the war crime of murder, which he denies.

First tracked
2026
Last on record
2026-09
Named in
4 articles
Across
2 cases

Named in 4 articles across 2 cases 10 connections: companies 3, parties and organisations 1, people 6

Defamation costs · ESTIMATE by Andrew Kenyon, Melbourne Law School, as reported by Al Jazeera
up to A$25m
ESTIMATE by Andrew Kenyon, Melbourne Law School, as reported by Al Jazeera, not a measured figure: up to A$25m. Source: Who pays [5]. RS-3 Al Jazeera, 1 June 2023: the case was estimated to have cost as much as A$25 million, the report says, according to Andrew Kenyon, a professor at the Melbourne Law School. The report gives the figure as his, so it is attributed to him as reported there. Checked against the report on 8 October 2026.
4
Articles naming it
2
Cases it recurs across
10
Linked in the graph
3
Figures on file

Fig. 01 / Where this name appears

The SmearUp to A$25 millionThe estimated cost of Roberts-Smith’s defamation action against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, about US$16.2 million, m…3 articles →Media OwnershipA$13.3Min costs ordered against Roberts-Smith and ACE together. Stokes used his private company to bankroll a defamation case against a commercial rival, …1 article →
Fig. 01Source: article scan · every article naming itAs of 2026‑09Auto-assembled

Fig. 02 / On the record

  1. A$13.3Min costs ordered against Roberts-Smith and ACE together. Stokes used his private company to bankroll a defamation case against a commercial rival, with his lawyers given direct oversight of the litigation.Source: Federal Court of AustraliaThe mining company with a stake in your news →
  2. Up to A$25 millionThe estimated cost of Roberts-Smith’s defamation action against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, about US$16.2 million, making it the most expensive defamation case Australia has ever seen.Source: Al Jazeera, 1 June 2023The writ →
Fig. 02Source: figures on file for this name, each tied to the article it came fromAs of 2026‑09Auto-assembled

How we know

The sources of the 4 articles that name Ben Roberts-Smith, by the tier the desk declared. A source supports its article, not necessarily a claim about Ben Roberts-Smith.

Evidence strength · 37 sources across 4 articles
  • Primary 5
  • Official 4
  • Masthead 16
  • Trade 6
  • Aggregator 4
  • Unusable 1
  • 1 not yet graded
Primary
the document itself: legislation, a court record, a filing, a regulator’s own publication
Official
the organisation’s own statement about itself
Masthead
a news organisation with a corrections policy, reporting the primary document
Trade
specialist or trade press
Aggregator
republishes others’ work
Unusable
its own sourcing cannot be established
How sources are graded

2 of 4 articles are graded on every headline finding. How findings are graded

Fig. 03 / Named together

Ben Roberts-SmithAndrew Hastie: named together in 3 articlesAndrew Hastie3Jacqui Lambie: named together in 2 articlesJacqui Lambie2One Nation: named together in 2 articlesOne Nation2Barnaby Joyce: named together in 1 articleBarnaby Joyce1Bridget McKenzie: named together in 1 articleBridget McKenzie1Kerry Stokes: named together in 1 articleKerry Stokes1Nine: named together in 1 articleNine1Pauline Hanson: named together in 1 articlePauline Hanson1Seven West Media: named together in 1 articleSeven West Media1Sydney Airport: named together in 1 articleSydney Airport1
The 10 names most often in the same articles as Ben Roberts-Smith. A line's weight, and the number by each name, is how many articles name both. Grey chords join the neighbours most often named together themselves (two articles or more). Circles are people and organisations, squares are mechanisms. Named together is all this shows: it is not a finding about what the relationship is.
Fig. 03Source: article scan · articles naming bothAs of 2026‑09Auto-assembled

How this page is assembled. The name, status and role are the desk's entity record. The article list, case counts, connections and the figures under On the record are read by script from the published articles that name Ben Roberts-Smith: the desk's key figures where it declared them, otherwise figures harvested from those articles. A connection is a name that appears in the same articles; it is not a finding about the relationship. Under How we know, the sources are those articles' references, counted once each and tiered only where the desk declared a tier; a grade beside an article is its weakest headline finding, shown only where every headline finding is graded. The page is rebuilt when an article is published or changed.

← THE DOCKET