Soldiers' families welcome coroner finding

The deaths of three Australian soldiers gunned down by a rogue Afghan soldier in Oruzgan province could have been prevented if a security warning had been passed down the chain of command, a coroner has found.

Deputy Queensland Coroner John Lock found Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate may not have died in the August 2012 attack if the warning had been properly communicated.

The scathing findings about the role of Defence failures in the tragedy, handed down on Tuesday, have been welcomed by the grieving families of the three men.

"The (coroner's) decision has highlighted the inadequacy of orders being passed down through the commanding officer at battalion command level," Sapper Martin's mother Suzanne Thomas said on Tuesday.

"We're now relying on Defence to follow through with the coroner's recommendations."

Lance Corporal Milosevic, 40, Sapper Martin, 21, and Private Poate, 23, were shot down by Sergeant Hekmatullah during a mentoring mission.

A coronial inquest was held in Brisbane last year at the request of the men's families.

On Monday, Mr Lock singled out army chiefs for failing to take the insider threat seriously and treating risk planning as a "tick and flick" exercise.

He found recommendations for increased force protection, from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were not passed down the chain of command.

As a result the slain men were caught off guard by Sergeant Hekmatullah, who fired almost 30 rounds into the soldiers from close range as they relaxed at a shared patrol base.

Mr Lock said the ISAF measures, such as more armed guards and a separation of Afghan and Australian troops, may have prevented or cut short the rogue soldier's attack.

"He (Hekmatullah) would have seen a quite different defensive setup and posture compared to the relaxed state of affairs he had seen," Mr Lock said.

"That may very well have deterred him from attacking then."

The slain men's relatives believe their loved ones would still be alive had the ISAF order been implemented.

"The opportunity for Hekmatullah to do what he did would basically have been non-existent," Private Poate's father Hugh Poate said.

"The system has to change."

A Defence statement said the Chiefs of Defence Force and Army maintained their confidence in the actions of those involved.