Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Government has committed to the former Government's objective of growing the Australian Defence Force (ADF) by 18,500 people by 2040;

(b) to meet the objective, there must be net growth of 1,000 people per year; and

(c) the ADF recruitment numbers currently sit at a net growth of approximately 300 people per year; and

(2) calls on all Members to:

(a) recognise that our regional security environment is deteriorating;

(b) acknowledge that Australia must build a strong and capable ADF;

(c) focus on how we find, recruit and retain young men and women we need to build the ADF into the future; and

(d) build a strong values based narrative of service, duty and country in appealing to our next generation of ADF recruits.

It is now the consensus view that our strategic environment is the most challenging and complex it has been since the Second World War, something we on this side of the House have been talking about for some time, and the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister both acknowledged this very recently. If you look back over the last year, there are plenty of indicators: Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine; the no-limits partnership struck between President Xi and President Putin; and, of course, the Chinese surveillance balloons over the continental US these past few days. Things are dangerous and dynamic, and the risk of miscalculation is much larger than it was five years ago.

The opposition will be watching the outcomes of the Defence Strategic Review closely, and we welcome the Prime Minister's comments in The Weekend Australian Magazinelast November that the government will spend 'whatever is necessary to produce the Defence Force that could defend Australia'. This is particularly appreciated following the October budget, as the message it sent did not inspire confidence. The government of the day has a moral obligation to the Australian people to build and maintain a strong deterrent to any aggressor. Given the stakes, the coalition will always work constructively with the government to build a strong and capable Australian Defence Force over the next two decades. The Albanese government has committed to the former coalition government's objective of growing the ADF by 18,500 people by 2040. That is a net growth of 1,000 people per year, noting that in recent years recruitment has only managed net growth of 300 people. This is a huge task. We must focus on how we find, recruit and retain young men and women for our future Defence Force.

There are a few things I want to make clear today. First, we need a message that appeals to young hearts and minds, emphasising the ethos of service, duty, honour and country. They are Anzac values and they are timeless, but if you watch a recruitment ad today, or over the last few years, you might think joining the ADF was simply a vehicle for self-actualisation. Yes, there are benefits to service, but we need something more than self-interest if we're going to grow the Defence Force by a thousand people per year in a tight labour market. Even an article by the Australian Army Research Centre recently recognised the need for a new narrative around military service. The next generation is waiting to be inspired and challenged by traditional values of service to country and to fellow Australians.

Second, we must make onboarding faster. It currently takes 292 days, from first contact to recruit training. This is not good enough. The Australia Public Service is achieving the same milestone in around 140 days, which is still a long time.

Third, we must remove barriers to service, often bureaucratic ones. As Assistant Minister for Defence last parliament and now shadow minister for defence, I hear from too many young Australians who get turned away because they've had a shoulder injury from rugby or football, a food allergy or, in one case, were medicate for ADHD in their childhood—all talented, motivated kids, turned away because of risk culture. We need to move beyond the one-size-fits-all model and select kids who might not tick all the boxes but who can get the job done, and then some.

Fourth, we need to do a better job of keeping people in the ADF—retention. That could mean allowing them to study at a civilian university mid-career or taking a posting in the private sector, where they might gain critical skills in a different setting. I think incentives for homeownership are also important, especially for a generation that feels locked out of the housing market. We need more pathways to return to uniform, not just pathways out.

Finally, we need to think about how we look after our serving families. Operations, career courses and exercises take time away from the family. COVID demonstrated that we can achieve a lot through online learning, which may well save on travel and time away, particularly for ADF career courses. I remember about 10 years ago speaking to an Army psychologist who was talking about the tempo and the impact it was having on families. A lot of us were doing six months away, coming back for a brief time and then moving on to a career course on the east coast or elsewhere. He said it's the equivalent of running a marathon and then, at the end of the race, having someone hand you a kettlebell and say, 'Here, swing this for 30 minutes.' We've got to learn how to rest people so that they're fit to fight, train and do their job in the Defence Force. So we must balance the benefits of bringing people together with managing the risks of keeping families apart.

It's going to be a busy decade ahead, and I hope this can be part of an ongoing conversation. The opposition stands ready to support the government in growing the ADF. It is simply responsible national security, and it is what Australians expect.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the shadow minister for bringing the motion for debate and acknowledge his service and genuine and abiding interest in defence and defence personnel issues. Although I haven't served, we know each other and I trust he'd acknowledge my genuine and longstanding interest, since I was elected, in defence personnel issues and now as chair of the defence subcommittee.

The motion is correct: the former government did indeed announce plans to grow Defence by 18,500 people from 2024 to 2040. I want to be very clear: I do support such significant growth in the ADF. It is necessary given our deteriorating strategic circumstances, and it's essential if we're going to operate new stuff. There's not much point investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new capability and kit and all the money that goes in sustainment if you don't have the skilled people to operate it. You can't just recruit them; it takes years, or in some cases decades, to get senior technicians and senior officers baked, skilled and ready.

But it's important also to understand the context. The previous government grew the ADF by 2,000 people in 10 years. The previous government's announcement of the increase was just that: it was an announcement. None of it was funded. The billions of dollars you need to go and recruit 18,500 people over that time span were not in the budget. Indeed, there was no plan for delivery. It wasn't only a lack of funding; there was no actual plan for delivery. The motion is right: in recent years, the average net gain, instead of the 1,000 we need, has been about 300. It's a serious issue and a big problem, but, sadly, it is another example of the former Prime Minister's penchant for making announcements, with lots of flags behind him in this case, but not actually delivering or taking it seriously. It wasn't just the vaccines. He was making announcements with no delivery plan in the critical realm of national security and defence, in the dying days of a dying government.

The current government didn't create the problem, but we will take responsibility for addressing it, and all ideas are welcome. I appreciate many of the thoughts and contributions of the shadow minister. To be fair, it's a tough recruiting environment, as they say. Over the last year, I've chatted to senior officers and junior officers about exactly this issue. When the economy is going well, Defence struggles. When the economy's not going well, Defence finds it easier to recruit, because it's competing with private sector salaries. In the case of technicians, the people who, frankly, we should have on red alert right now—cyber specialists and grease monkeys, as one of them called themselves—these are people who can, frankly, earn vastly larger sums in the private sector. Defence is competing with mining, oil, gas, resources, construction and so on. But it's not just a now issue. As I said, the pipeline has a 10-year impact.

The motion appeals for the 'values based narrative of service, duty and country in appealing to our next generation of ADF recruits'. These are worthy and noble values—Anzac values, as was said. They sound great, and they'll no doubt play well in the party room. But we need to be far more focused, forensic, deliberate and serious if we're going to actually fix this problem.

The first point is that we need to focus most urgently on retention, not recruitment. I put this to the Chief of the Defence Force directly—I'm not breaking any state secrets—to say it's an in-and-out equation. The quickest, most urgent thing we can do is to slow the rate of people moving, stabilise the situation and focus our efforts on that while we do that work and wait for the economy to change, frankly. That's just a mathematical fact. We need to not get swayed about values and ads on TV; we need to look at the here and now and what we do to persuade, convince, cajole and reward people to stay in the service. That, indeed, is what the Chief of the Defence Force said.

The government is awaiting the recommendations of the Defence Strategic Review announced by the Prime Minister, and the Force Posture Review, because it's not just about numbers of course; it's about where you want people. You can't really shape a recruitment strategy until you have some clue about where you're trying to recruit people and ask them to serve and stay.

The government has a new recruiting services contract, to enable Defence to update its recruitment system. It's a range of marketing, IT systems, medical and psychological testing—all that kind of stuff, as you'd expect. And we should be market testing, frankly. I hate to say it, but we really need evidence, not assertions, as to what the best recruiting methods will be. I wouldn't suggest the former Prime Minister, the marketing guy, be let anywhere near this, but he could do redemption, I suppose, with a bit of free advice. But one of the key aspects of the new contract is to drive down the time it takes to recruit someone—

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. A point of order?

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order: he's just reflecting on the member for Cook again. I'd just ask him to withdraw that.

An honourable member interjecting—

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, you reflect on it. I withdraw the fact that the former Prime Minister was a marketing guy— (Time expired)

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The year 2025—that's the year identified by a US Air Force general who said: 'My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.' That's not something any of us want. It is something all of us want to do everything we can to avoid. Whether or not this general is correct, only time will tell. But one thing is for sure: we are definitely well within the 10-year window of warning.

All of us here will agree, and I have said before, that we are facing the most geopolitically uncertain times since World War II. And that, of course, means we must be doing absolutely everything we can to be battle-ready. We don't seek war, but we must be prepared for it. We don't want to fight, but we must have the ability to do so.

In talking about recruitment and retention, I think it needs to be flipped on its head. Why do our brave young men and women want to join the Australian Defence Force? Why did they enlist? And what will keep them employed?

I think it's good that our Defence Force has helped out through natural disasters—through fires, through floods, through cyclones—and through COVID Assist. But it's not the primary role of our ADF. The primary role of our ADF is to fight and win our wars, to protect this country. We've seen all governments use our ADF as first responders. We are too small and too busy to have the Australian Defence Force as any government's first responders. And it's not why they signed up. It's not why they joined their profession. So, to keep people and to recruit people, you need to allow our soldiers, our sailors and our aviators to do their job, whether it's on deployment, whether it's in a training team, whether it's overseas in a training capacity, in a non-kinetic or non-warlike kind of place, whether it's in the States or in the UK.

We have a lot of US soldiers and marines come to Australia and up into the Top End, into Darwin. But we don't have a lot of our soldiers going over there.

I don't think we need, as was highlighted, to get more officers into more degrees; I think we need to get soldiers doing their jobs. That is, if there's a long peacetime—so they're not deploying to Afghanistan and they're not deploying on combat operations—then let's get our people overseas into the UK. If you take a section or a platoon over to the UK, to Japan or to the States, those soldiers will stay forever and they will teach and train younger soldiers. We have a recruitment and retention issue with the enlisted soldier. We know what appeals to people—well, my generation—to get them to enlist. It was to protect and serve our nation, and it was, at some stage, which happened, to deploy and fight. But we don't do that at the moment. That's not happening. So we need to have other tools to help our soldiers want to enlist and then to keep them. There are some things like that that we can do, but there are also things that we shouldn't do. We can't just focus on the recruitment; we must also focus on the retention.

You must be able to have the kit to fight in. You must be able to have the stuff that you can train in and that you can deploy in, and you must be upfront with the soldiers, aviators and sailors. In Townsville, the announcement to remove the MRH-90 helicopter out of our region without talking, without telling and without bringing the community along will cost jobs and will see families leave a place where they wanted to grow their family. It will see people leaving the beautiful place of Townsville. That's not what you do. If you want to refocus an asset, you talk with the community about why. We must protect our soldiers, aviators and sailors with secure jobs.

Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always a great honour to have the opportunity to speak in this place. I'm grateful that, like this government, the member for Canning shares an interest and passion for the Australian Defence Force and for the wellbeing of our Defence Force. I thank him for his service to our nation.

The Albanese Labor government has committed to ensure that our Defence Force continues to recruit and keep ADF personnel to meet our current and future defence needs. We have a target to expand our ADF by 18,500 personnel by 2040. Unfortunately, the previous government left us to start from behind the eight ball. I'm excited to see how my friend the Minister for Defence Personnel, and also the neighbour of my electorate, the member for Canning, will address the recruitment objectives that this government has committed to. I'm confident in the minister. But I want to address one of the points in the member for Canning's motion.

The previous government was reckless and only made progress to weaken and worsen the relationships that Australia has with its closest neighbours, its biggest trading partners and even an ally that was going to build a submarine for us. The previous government didn't just put its foot in it; it looked at the relationships that are so vital for peace and prosperity in our region and treated them like a kicked-in bickie tin. The previous government did more harm than good for our nation and for our regional security environment. Everyone in our nation has seen how quickly the Albanese Labor government has worked to rebuild relationships with our neighbours and greet them as our brothers and sisters, and worked with them to build bridges.

Soon we will know the outcome of the Defence Strategic Review. We will have a greater insight into how our country can be a greater leader in this region and work together with our neighbours near and far to continue to propagate peace and rise to challenges, in cooperation with one another. Our greatest challenge will not be one another but our failure to see our neighbour as our neighbour. In this pursuit we must take great care to not lose sight of our ability to do good for others. Every day there is an opportunity for Australia to work in our region to remove trade barriers, develop industry, and improve the provision and opportunity for prosperity and cooperation with our world. If we were to measure the first few months of this government's time in office, again and again we would see this government embracing its neighbour and moving towards old friendships the previous government had let sour. I have a hope. Please allow me to speak in my mother tongue: hua gange weiyubo. In Bahasa Malaysian: Menukarkan Senjata kepada sutera jed. In English it means 'to work for peace'.

I'm proud of the actions of this government and confident to see our government continue to repair the relationships that had been so badly damaged by the previous government. I'm also proud to have my only son serving in the Australian Defence Force, and I encourage all the courageous young men and women out there to join our Defence Force, to serve and protect our country together. Thank you.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank of the member for Canning for moving this important motion in the House which highlights how important it is for the government to encourage the growth of our Australian Defence Force. The ADF is extremely important to Australians. Knowing we have a strong and capable defence force makes Australians feel safe and secure. It ensures our freedom, which, as Australians, we are proud and thankful for. The previous coalition government had foresight and committed to growing the Australian Defence Force to ensure Australians' readiness for our ever-changing world. To meet this commitment there must be a net growth of 1,000 new recruits per year. Currently we are sitting at a rate of just 300.

With these stats in mind, it makes me wonder: why is it that more young people aren't considering employment in the Australian Defence Force? It isn't because patriotism is lost. Just look at the youth attendance at our Anzac Day, Remembrance Day and Vietnam Veterans Day services, with crowd numbers increasing year on year. Every Australian has a connection with a veteran in some way.

But we must look after our dedicated men and women once they return home. Anyone who is considering joining Australian Defence Force knows that their life will change. They know that they might see or have to do something unthinkable. They know it's a high-risk industry and there is a possibility of injury, emotional scarring and even death. But what these men and women don't know is this: will they and their families have the support and services they need upon returning home?

Before the 2022 election the coalition committed to much needed funding for veterans in my region, with $5 million secured for an RSL facility in Mackay and a wellness centre at Kinchant Dam. This was cut in Labor's October budget. These vital services are a must-have for my people and the surrounding region. We have too many veterans feeling the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder with no support whatsoever.

Local legend Keith Payne VC AM, who fought in the Vietnam War, explained: 'It's either suicide or going crook at the family. Something's got to give.' Keith has dedicated his whole life to our nation. He was posted to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, back in 1951. Since then he has served our country with dignity and honour. In the Vietnam War he spent three hours searching for wounded troops, all while defending from incoming Vietnamese soldiers. When asked whether he was afraid, he said: 'My God, yes! Yes, I was!'

People like Keith and his family need support services available to them, no matter where they choose to live. There are almost 4,000 vets like Keith in the Mackay region alone. How can we stand here and expect the next generation to serve when they can clearly see that our veterans are not even granted basic support services? And this is after they have put their bodies on the line for our country. If we want to see more young guns joining the ranks—and we do—we need to show them that we treat our past servicemen and women with respect and honour and look after them when they return home.

At the end of the day, our vets are the heart and soul of our nation. They are the reason we are the lucky country, the reason we enjoy our freedom and the reason we sit back, have a beer, fire up the barbie on Saturday and enjoy our Aussie way of life. To build our ADF, the next generation need to know that we will support them and that support will be available to them when they return to their shores when their service is done. Without the support and the services, some veterans may feel suicide is the only way out of their trauma and suffering. We cannot wait any longer. I urge the Labor government to get the vets of Dawson the support that they deserve. They have fought for our country.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the member for Canning's motion on growing the ADF by 18,500 people by 2040. This, of course, is of burning national interest, and both sides of the House and the Senate should support it with more than words. But I'll give it a crack with words.

The member for Canning started his contribution by talking about how those in opposition, who were in government for 10 years before belatedly announcing an increase to troops, understood the changing geostrategic circumstances. I'd just point out to him—he's not here, unfortunately, but I would say it to his face—that understanding geostrategic circumstances is more than joining a group like the Wolverines. It is important that we're mature. It is important that we attack the issues that we have, like recruiting and retention, in a constructive and bipartisan way.

Defence currently employs 77,000 uniformed personnel, which is 5.4 per cent, or 4,000 Australians, below the minimum that we require. The defence minister pointed to what he called a personnel crisis driven by growing inability to retain ADF members. The Labor Party, in government, has committed to boosting the force by 18,500 out to 2040, reaching around 101,000, including Defence civilians. So far, the Department of Defence has planned growth of 12,500 people, of whom 10,450-odd will be uniformed Australian Defence members and 2,000 odd will be Australian public servants.

We are awaiting the recommendations of the Defence Strategic Review announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in August of last year, but there are things that we can do and there are things that we are doing right now. Defence has already started making changes to drive recruitment and retention and to grow its workforce, including but not limited to expanding the ADF family health benefit, which increases the reimbursable services and allowances for the dependants of ADF members. This came into effect in December last year under our government. The changes include changing remote locality leave travel ,which includes an additional trip home per year for those working in remote locations. This came into effect in November 2022, and, as a former member of the ADF who did work in different places around Australia and overseas, I know that being reunited and getting home is important for morale and will help with retention. The changes include changing Defence travel policy to make allowances more accessible. This came into effect in October 2022 and has received significant positive feedback from Defence personnel, so the opposition defence spokesman should speak to them about that, and we'd welcome further ideas. The changes include expanding the Defence Assisted Study Scheme and StudyBank programs, aimed at improving and increasing access to educational opportunities. This came into effect in late January 2023, with benefits realised from the new 2023 academic year onwards. Assisting ADF members with pathways for their future will help with retention and recruiting. The revised ADF higher duties allowance policy, which comes into effect in early 2023, will properly compensate ADF members when they conduct higher duties, which is appropriate, overdue and very much needed.

The motion of the member for Canning rightly points to the need to build a strong values based narrative of service, duty and country to appeal to new ADF recruits and, I agree, this is a critical factor. In an insightful piece from the Australian Army Research Centre, Tingting Luo, an Army officer who worked in the 6th Brigade and 7th Brigade pointed to three limitations. She calls for: recruitment campaigns as a lifestyle choice—we need to change that; more flexibility; finally, a new recruitment and retention taskforce. They are all good ideas, and I welcome them. As we are growing the force, we will need all sorts of ideas. Our government is getting on with the task of growing our ADF for the challenges that we face in the near future.

Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

According to Sun Tzu, the art of the war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming but on our own readiness to receive him, not on the chance of him not attacking but rather on the fact we have made our position unassailable. This wisdom was offered over 2,500 years ago, yet it appears Australia is still grappling with the lesson. Rather, our defence strategy to date has been largely based on key assumption that our key ally, America, is the pre-eminent power in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, it is unlikely that Australia would face a military threat from a major power, because America would prevent that kind of threat from emerging and, if for some reason we were threatened, America would come to our defence. That may have been a fine assumption over the course of the last 80 years, but, with the shifting geopolitical environment, we must consider more seriously than ever before whether Australia can defend itself independently and, if so, how.

The motion moved by the member for Canning then is very timely. I agree with him. There are new threats and, I agree, we need to prioritise not just developing new capabilities but also building a strong values based narrative of service, duty and country. However, I would add to his argument that, for our approach to be most effective, we must also be willing to divest from strategies that no longer serve us or provide a less than optimal return.

There are just over 26 million people in Australia, and population growth has been stable at one per cent a year. My understanding is that the size of our current ADF has also remained relatively stable in recent times, with just over 58,500 defence personnel, including a much smaller number of frontline combat personnel currently in service. Nearly 22,000 reserve personnel are also enlisted, which means just 0.3 per cent of our community could be mobilised relatively quickly should we come under direct attack. This is a fraction of the size of the forces of neighbouring middle-power countries such as South Korea and Indonesia, with each dwarfing Australia's military capability, with nearly 600,000 and 340,000 troops respectively. China boasts the largest military in the world, with more than two million troops and a naval force that has more than tripled in size over the past two decades.

Looking at our circumstance, Greg Moriarty, the secretary of the Department of Defence noted in the 2021-22 Australian government Defence annual report that the ADF remains focused on continuing to build a diverse and inclusive culture our people. However, he did not specifically address the challenge of increasing its numbers. He did, though, reference the ADF's focus on achieving range and survivability. In the same report General Angus Campbell AO DSC General Chief of the Defence Force said, 'People are the most important component of military capability' and 'The success of the Australian Defence Force, like a nation, lies in the character of its people and the culture of our teams.' Again, he did not specifically address how we build a force that can defend our continent independently from a direct attack.

In a world where there is no imminent threat to our nation, how do we encourage every Australian to consider what role they can play in ensuring our long-term strategic independence without simply fear mongering? According to 2022 Lowy Institute poll, Australian's sense of safety has been up and down in recent years, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and instability closer to home appearing to affect public opinion with just over half Australians reporting they felt 'safe' or 'very safe'. This is down from 70 per cent in 2021. Three in five Australians also reported they're concerned about a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait, up from 36 per cent in 2017.

Australians also expressed high levels of concern about either non-traditional security threats, with two-thirds citing cyberattacks from other countries and a similar number citing climate change as posing critical threats. Yet, if enlistment numbers are anything to go by, the sense of increasing risk is not translating into action.

We do not have the compulsory military training of Scandinavian and some EU countries to ensure our ever-ready sizable force can be stood up quickly if required, nor do we have the patriotic fever that comes with America's military service. It's hard to see this changing. But, unless the Australian population is inspired to think and care about defence, we have little chance of meaningful change. This will require our government to develop and communicate clear priorities to both defence forces and our wider community, which sounds pretty straightforward but is likely to be anything but as the ADF is a large and complex bureaucracy with many factions competing for limited resources. We must accept we can't protect ourselves from every conceivable threat and instead clearly articulate where we are going to take the risk and why. Success is far from guaranteed, and we all have an important role to play.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) 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.