Defence review firm backed despite insults

THE firm chosen to "clean up" social media policy in the Defence Force is now caught up in its own scandal.

Senior staff at the advertising agency promote degrading images of women and post bizarre messages on their social networking accounts.

In the wake of the Skype sex scandal, agency George Patterson Y&R won the lucrative taxpayer-funded "social media review" contract without going to tender.

The company is run by high-profile adman Russel Howcroft.

On their personal sites, which can be accessed from the firm's home page, staff refer to Prime Minister Julia Gillard as a lesbian and Kevin Rudd as a "loser".

Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the review would "harness opportunities to improve Defence's work and reputation".

Mr Smith said George Patterson was a company that had worked very happily in the past with the defence force.

"I think it's a salutary lesson for the employees of George Patterson as it's a salutary lesson for all Australians," he said.

Mr Smith said the Secretary of the Department of Defence commissioned George Patterson to conduct a review of the way defence force personnel understood and used social media.

"We've seen in the recent past a number of regrettable incidents, whether it's Facebook, whether it's the internet, whether it's Skype, where members of the defence force have effectively got themselves into trouble."

Mr Smith said people needed to understand that when using modern digital technology, a remark intended to remain private, may well become public.

He said people in uniform, whether onshore or offshore, represented the defence force and the nation, and they had to conduct themselves appropriately or it could bring about adverse consequences for them, and the reputation of the defence force and the nation.

George Patterson's appointment to conduct the review followed a former defence force member being charged over the setting up of a gay-hate Facebook page.

The review is one of a series launched in response to allegations of misbehaviour at the Australian Defence Force Academy in which one cadet filmed himself having sex with a female cadet and streamed the images via Skype to fellow cadets in another room.