The old guard of the RSL NSW has been dramatically swept from power amid a series of financial scandals, with young war veteran James Brown elected the new state president.
Former commando Mick Bainbridge, also a strong advocate for change in the league, has been elected the state league's youngest ever councillor at 32. The league also elected its second ever woman councillor.
The change forces out previous president John Haines, who was heavily criticised for failing to properly deal with the allegations of financial improprieties, and reflects a surge of concern among grassroots members about allegations of financial improprieties by some councillors and cover-ups by others.
It also represents the generational shift from the Vietnam veteran era to the veterans of more recent conflicts such as Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which Mr Brown, 36, served in. Mr Brown is Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's son-in-law.
It comes after eight months of Fairfax Media reporting on financial scandals that have rocked the NSW branch of the league.
Mr Brown said the league would have to deal with the recent troubles but also grow its membership, including younger veterans.
"First we have to get to the bottom of the many inquiries and investigations underway, some of which are serious and criminal, and that's going to occupy my mind in the near future," he said.
He added that the state congress had already made some changes to improve transparency on Tuesday.
"There is a clear mood from veterans, old and young, for generation change. We have to makes sure that the RSL is a place where women, all veterans and their families, are welcome. That is going to take some work. We have sadly become a place that has seen more funerals than weddings or christenings."
NSW Veterans Affairs Minister David Elliott, who has been a sharp critic of the previous leadership and its failures to deal with the financial allegations, declared himself "absolutely thrilled".
"I think what we've seen today is the beginning of a whole new dawn for the RSL, a time for the contemporary veterans to take ownership of what is essentially their organisation, their birthright, because they've inherited the great Anzac story," he said.
"I think James is the man to clean the mess up."
RSL national president Robert Dick also welcomed the result, saying investigations into the financial scandals had produced a "silver lining for us to weed out any wrong doings or perceived wrongdoings".
Mr Brown defeated Mr Haines by 138 to 102 in the ballots cast by RSL NSW sub-branches. Overall, newer and younger members now make up the majority of the council.
The result was also well received by grassroots members. Norm Cason, vice-president of Nelson Bay sub-branch who served in the armoured corps in 1950s, said the league was "better served by moving on from the old guard".
Auditors have found that former NSW president Don Rowe withdrew more than $200,000 on his corporate credit card and that some past and present councillors received tens of thousands of dollars in unexplained consultants' fees from the league's aged care arm. The NSW government announced a royal commission-style inquiry last week.
Summing up the anger over the scandals, NSW Governor David Hurley called on Tuesday for "a new direction" for the state's RSL, which he says has been "wounded" by the scandals.
The highly respected former Chief of the Defence Force, who is patron of the state league, raised the spectre of the military's own "Skype affair" sex scandal to underscore the damage the financial abuse allegations have caused the veterans' group.
