One of New Zealand's most controversial journalists Nicky Hager has spoken about the significance of Anzac Day affecting the militaries ability to get away with war crimes.
The Dirty Politics author promoted Jon Stephenson's and his new book Hit and Run last night, which exposed what he called the "slow, deliberate and grubby" NZ SAS raid in Afghanistan, which left 21 innocent civilians dead or wounded.
Mr Hager believed a key driver of the militaries ability to get away with secrets and war crimes like what the book explains was to do with Anzac Day.
He saw this national day, which was an incoherent celebration of war, the difficulty of properly controlling the military.
"Anzac Day worships the military and through this day they are treated as a sacred force and are never criticised. There is a culture of no criticism and I think this is important."
Mr Hager said anything the military did was never questioned as they were seen to sacrifice themselves for the safety of the country.
"you see the relatives of those soldiers wearing their ribbons and in the ceremony those serving overseas at the time get a mention. They are taking the past dead and sacrificed and are applying to the whole military."
The book looks at the biggest SAS operation which was conducted after the first New Zealander died in conduct.
He claims troops began a frantic search to find the insurgent group responsible and after tracking down targets through mobile phone signals they blew up homes killing innocent civilians.
Mr Hager said the SAS could not blow up the last person in a mosque so he was arrested, beaten and tortured.
"While the guy stood by the vehicle the troops beat the s*** out of him breaking the absolute rule of the New Zealand Code of Conduct Card."
"On the top of the list is don't abuse a prisoner."
Mr Hager said the denial by the government was predictable but he was optimistic an enquiry would happen.
"Allegations of war crimes are different to normal political stuff so are much harder to sweep away."
"Court action is in the wings and even though the government think it has been shut down, it is all very much alive."