Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

In the last round of estimates, Australia found out just how bad recruitment and retention rates in the Australian Defence Force are. Defence's personal target overall was 62,000—what it calls its 'growth path'—but it went backwards to 59,000. They are losing more than they are recruiting. Lieutenant General Fox told estimates that, in the last two years, nearly 8,000 veterans have left the Australian Defence Force. The general also admitted that the Australian Defence Force had 'reduced in strength'. Senator Shoebridge put it best when he described Defence's 'growth path' as a 'shrink path'. Dr Marcus Hellyer, a former senior public servant in the department, said that Defence's performance in trying to expand the size of the Australian Defence Force had been 'a clown show'.

The ADF has averaged a separation rate—that means veterans who are leaving—at eight to 10 per cent. That is 5,000 to 6,000 a year. Many of these veterans are highly trained and highly skilled. This is at a time when we have a war in Ukraine, a war in Israel and tensions at an all-time high in the South China Sea. Our Defence Force has never been more important, and it has also never been so depleted. This is not just an issue for veterans; it's a national security issue. It's an issue for every Australian.

For many older veterans, the news of the 'shrink path' is no surprise. It started back in the nineties. Remember the recession that we apparently had to have—high unemployment, families losing businesses and 17 per cent interest rates? In response, Defence started offering experienced veterans redundancies—how ridiculous!—and the Howard government introduced the Defence Reform Program in 1997. This program was supposed to save millions of dollars, increase efficiencies and focus Defence on its core business. In other words, they wanted more civilians in the system, and they wanted to outsource. When I did my training at Kapooka, all of my mates—from the cooks to the cleaners to the admin people—were all in cam uniform. That meant they did basic training. That meant they could progress through the ranks. That meant we had units where all members were war ready. But the Defence Reform Program was brought in, and that put an end to that—thank you, Mr Howard! The outsourcing didn't stop there. It was the biggest mistake they ever made. They outsourced recruiting, and they're still doing it. They gave it to Manpower.

In 2001, 22 years ago, a Senate inquiry was commissioned to look at the recruitment and retention of ADF personnel. It found that these efficiencies and rationalisation measures had reduced the ADF's strength by 27 per cent. It's a good report. I would encourage the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to pick it up and read it and to have a look at why we're in the situation that we're in. Put it in your equation; you might actually learn something!

That's the problem: Defence and the ministers in charge don't listen and they do not learn. Submissions should also be read which were written 20 years ago; they could have been sent yesterday. They mirror each other, I'm telling you. They're all very instructive, and many say the same things, and that is that they left the ADF because there were, 'No promotion prospects and no career alternatives'. Or there was, 'The lack of recognition of skills obtained by cadets can be attributed to the lack of recruits'. One of the key recommendations of the 2001 inquiry was to fix the recognition of skills. It still isn't fixed—of course not! Another wrote: 'I feel that morale starts with the troops really being content. There is no morale with a private contractor.'

These are key messages for you Minister. Here is how much this government and the Minister for Defence Personnel haven't learned: just two weeks ago, the government took the recruitment contract from Manpower Australia and awarded it to some sort of French-Swiss based multinational in a deal thought to be worth over $1 billion. That's $1 billion of your taxpayers' money when those in uniform are doing the job—themselves recruiting many years ago and doing a damn good job of it. You took it out of their hands. There is a lesson to be learned today by the ministers: wake up to yourselves!