Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to speak on this motion this evening. Firstly, I'd like to thank the member who moved the motion in my absence in a previous sitting week, because debating this motion gives me a great opportunity to express my unwavering support for the Australian Defence Force Cadets, their vital service to the country and the work that they do instilling values into our young people. Service, courage, respect, integrity and excellence—these are the values of the ADF Cadets that underpin their mission to lead and serve our local communities and our nation.

In particular, I'm very proud that the Ryan electorate has a number of ADF Cadet units, including at the Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera but also located in a number of schools within the electorate. It's of course a community based youth development program, which focuses on preserving the customs and traditions of the Australian Defence Force. That's incredibly important for the Ryan community, because the Ryan community is, as I said, home to the Gallipoli Barracks, so it is home to many serving Defence personnel but also ex-Defence personnel and veterans who have chosen to stay located in the local area and those who have located there as part of their service at the Amberley barracks, further down the highway. We have a very proud tradition in the Ryan electorate of supporting our service men and women and veterans, and promoting the values and the ethos of the Australian Defence Force in the cadets is a tremendous way to do that.

Last year in May—I'm just trying to get my dates right; with COVID, things tend to blend together—I was very pleased to have the Assistant Minister for Defence, Andrew Hastie, come to the electorate. It was one of the few visits that he was able to successfully complete given the on-and-off border openings in Western Australia. He came to look at the site and to have discussions with those who are helping me lead the charge for the new Brookfield cadet unit in the electorate of Ryan. The Morrison government, at my urging, has already committed some $100,000 in funding to help get this new cadet unit off the ground. There is significant need in the local community. Brookfield is some distance from the existing cadet unit over at Enoggera, and already, since the call was put out that we were looking to establish this unit, over 40 young people have put up their hands and said they are keen to become cadets as this unit is started up. Assistant Minister Hastie is revered for his own service, but not many people would know that he was a cadet himself and he credits the cadets with instilling in him that love of service and that love of country and encouraging him as he got older to then join up to serve in the ADF. It was great to have him there to talk all thing cadets because not only is it his portfolio but he embodies everything we're trying to achieve with the program in terms of instilling those values in our young Australians and then, hopefully, inspiring them to go on to a career of service with the ADF.

I really want to give a shout-out to the local residents who are helping in this endeavour to put the new cadet unit together—that is, the president of the Kenmore-Moggill RSL Sub Branch, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Maher; and the sub-branch treasurer and a former officer in the Royal Engineers of the British Army, Richard Ponsonby; and Leonie Smith. These individuals have been instrumental in getting this cadet unit started. It was their initiative. They came to me and said, 'We'd really like to start this up. Can you secure some initial funding,' which indeed we have been able to do. As the unit progresses, ultimately, to its establishment, all three of them are working incredibly hard. Rick and Richard are obviously both servicemen themselves and are devoted to bringing that to our local youth, as I am. So I give a shout-out to them.

I also give a shout-out to the 129 Australian Army Cadet Unit, which, as I said, is based at the Gallipoli Barracks, at Enoggera. They have 144 currently serving cadets, so that unit is going very strong. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions, they've still been able to conduct regular parades and weekend activities together, including obstacle courses and other ways to build their skills as part of the cadet training program.

It has been a pleasure to deliver that $100,000 worth of funding. I very much look forward to welcoming our very first cadets in the very near future to the Brookfield cadet unit and to helping to see those values instilled in even more young people within the Ryan electorate.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for his motion and I'm pleased to support it. The ADF cadet program is a community-based youth development program focused on leadership and team building. At a time when other youth development programs are declining, the cadets remain a popular, respected and reputable youth program. The cadet program has been successful in appealing to a diverse audience, attracting a high ratio of young women into its ranks, as well as Australians from culturally diverse backgrounds.

For our part, Labor supported legislative changes, following the 2015 first principles review of Defence, to provide a clearer legal framework for the cadets. These changes established the cadets as a volunteer-based youth development organisation and enhanced the administrative oversight of cadets. A future Labor government will continue to support the cadets as an important youth development program, while avoiding an excessive administrative burden on the volunteers who make this program possible.

There are about 28,000 cadets currently enrolled in three cadet programs; about 4,200 officers, instructors and approved helpers who supervise and support these young people; and 584 ADF cadet units across the states and territories. I've had the privilege of engaging with a number of cadet units in and around the electorate of Blair, both Army and Navy cadet units in Ipswich, up at Milford Street; in Springfield as well, with the member for Oxley; and the Air Force cadet unit at RAAF Base Amberley, the largest Air Force base in Australia, in Ipswich in my electorate. I want to take this opportunity to commend all our ADF cadets and recognise the great work of the volunteer cadet leaders and staff, many of whom are parents or former cadets or veterans themselves, who give up their time to mentor these young people. Indeed, one of my electorate staff, Tyler Brennan, is a former cadet and now a cadet instructor. Thank you, Tyler, for the work you do with the cadets.

Cadets are an important source of defence recruitment for the ADF, with many going on to serve in a permanent ADF capacity or in the reserves. We on this side recognise this and the important role of the cadets and of a commitment to their continuity and growth. An Albanese Labor government will ensure a vibrant and well-equipped cadet program into the future. This is critical because, really, in many ways the current government has failed when it comes to the recruitment and retention of defence personnel. The cadets provide a conduit to the ADF, as youth sporting teams do to the NRL, the AFL, the AFLW, the A-League or any other elite sporting competition.

The latest Defence annual report shows that in 2020-21 Defence met only 90 per cent of the permanent force recruitment targets, and we know it has failed to meet the 2016 Defence white paper targets every year since 2015-16. At the same time the 2020 Defence strategic update and the 2020 Force structure plan showed that workforce costs are set to fall as a percentage of the defence budget while capability acquisitions will rise. In other words, investment in defence people and defence jobs is significantly lower than spending on capability and procurement. Given the government is failing to meet its current recruitment targets and that personnel shortages are already impacting the ADF, this could become a pressing defence capability issue in the future.

Back in 2020, as part of the defence strategic update, the government promised to deliver a new defence workforce strategy in the following year, 2021. Well, 2021 came and went, and they failed to release it. Now we hear that the government will release the defence strategic workforce plan in early 2022, a year late. We understand it has been delayed by the new AUKUS agreement between Australia, the UK and the USA. That's disappointing. It puts obviously national security issues front and centre. Of course, there's no guarantee the government is on track to meet the current white paper target of 62,400 personnel, so we need to see the new workforce plan as soon as possible if we're going to have enough people, both permanent and reserve, to operate the ADF.

The government talk a big game when it comes to defence, but the reality is they have failed when it comes to not only defence capability and major acquisitions but recruiting and retaining enough ADF personnel to keep this country safe now and in the future. For nine years they have had no credible plan to grow the ADF. That's where the cadets come in. We commend the cadets. They play a key role in the pathway to ADF recruitment. I commend the work they do. I thank them for what they do. I thank the instructors and helpers in the cadet units around the country. Labor will continue to support this important youth development program.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join my colleague the member for Blair in congratulating the cadets across our country. Bendigo, which is in my electorate, is an old town that has a long defence history. We too are home to Army cadets, Air Force cadets and Navy cadets. We see them each and every Anzac Day. They play an important role not just at Anzac Day events but at a number of other events that happen. Our RSLs quite regularly call upon our cadets to participate, help and raise the flag at their activities.

Cadets are critical, as others have said, in providing an opportunity and pathway to young people who might be interested in a career in the ADF. They do so much more than introduce young people to our Australian Defence Force opportunities. They also provide young people with an opportunity to come together to learn leadership skills, participate in team activities and be engaged in a really proactive and positive environment. You are part of a team when you're part of the cadets.

Not all young people are active in sport and not all young people are active in theatre. Cadets provide young people an opportunity to be involved in another activity after school. It's not for everyone, but some people really connect with it. Some make friends for life through being involved with the cadets, regardless whether they go on to a defence career or not.

It has been particularly hard for young people in all of our electorates but particularly those in Victoria over the last few years. I give a special shout-out to the people in my electorate, including the cadets, who haven't been able to gather like they usually do. There haven't been a lot of activities. Our Anzac services have been pared back because of COVID. They haven't been able to gather regularly on their parade nights, because of social-distancing requirements, or they have had to do it via zoom. One young cadet said to me that, after having schooling via zoom all day the last thing they wanted to do was cadets via zoom. It missed the point of why they would gather in person.

It has been a challenging two years for these young people and all young people. Last year I spoke to our year 12s, who were getting close to graduation. They were in year 11 when they were doing homeschooling. For most of year 12 they did homeschooling. I asked them what their plans and hopes were for the future. It was also to offer them an apology. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Those final two years of schooling are such a rite of passage. There's a plan from day one about what your final two years looks like, and so many of our young people just didn't get that opportunity. School formals looked different. Exams looked different. Being able to get together and do the regular extracurricular activities at school looked different. A number of them deferred their studies. They said that they weren't going to study this year and that they were going to look for other opportunities.

So I think that, when we're talking about our cadets, we need to talk more broadly about young people in Australia and we need to work out what we're offering a generation of teenagers and people in their early 20s—a generation of younger people that, because of COVID, have missed out on so much of what the rest of us got to do. Yes, it's different in states like WA and Queensland. But in states like Victoria and New South Wales, where we were subject to a lot of changes around what we could do, this is a generation that didn't get those rite-of-passage moments like the rest of us. This is a generation that may not have got the marks that they wanted and may not be studying. This is a generation for whom homeownership is looking more and more unlikely. This is a generation who, it looks like, will have four or five career changes, maybe even more of that.

So the more that our government can do to create opportunities for younger Australians, the better. The more cadet programs leading into apprenticeship programs within the Defence Force, the better. The more we look at expanding out and paying a proper wage to people who might want to work in conservation, the better. There's an opportunity for us here in this place to really think about how we can support that generation of young people, who've really borne the brunt of a lot of what's happened with COVID. I couldn't imagine being 18 or 19 and having to go through the last two years of what a lot of our young people in Australia have. They should be congratulated, but they should also be listened to.

So I'm keen to hear more from our cadets about what they'd like to see in the future. I'd like to thank them for what they do. We couldn't have the events that we have in Bendigo without their service. I'd also like to encourage any young person thinking about it to give it a go. You might meet a best friend, you might have a career in the ADF and you might have some good fun along the way.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.