Since when was joining toastmasters necessary to be eligible for the Military?
I asked the Defence Department for the second time in 12 months why they are making it so hard for young adults to join the military.
I get a steady flow of correspondence from concerned parents who are dismayed that their children are not accepted into the military.
Most of these parents are veterans who can’t believe the reasons their children are being knocked back.
One young man was told he should join toastmasters to work on his communication.
Someone’s ability to communicate is generally a function of their confidence is it not? Being told they aren’t good enough won’t help their communication skills.
It is simply not acceptable for our Defence force to be knocking back recruits when they have a hiring shortage.
One might start to think they didn’t want Australia to be able to defend itself.
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee
26/02/2025
Estimates
DEFENCE PORTFOLIO
Department of Defence
Senator RENNICK: Before you go, I will put the second question to you as well so you don’t need to come back again. It is regarding enlistment. I have a number of emails. I have raised before with Defence the difficulty Australians are having in regard to enlisting in the military, particularly young people. I have a number of emails from military families who cannot get their sons into the military. I will read one email: ‘My son, Nathan, has been attempting to join the Australian Army as an enlisted soldier for the last 10 months. This process has been amazingly slow and inefficient, with documents being requested multiple times, interviews being cancelled and moved, my son being asked back for multiple interviews and finally being rejected for the ADF Gap Year. He was told to join Toastmasters to work on his communication. Nathan is a sound communicator, engaging in both drama and writing at school, in addition to music and football. He also took on the lead role in his high school’s musical performance while still volunteering and insisting on setup instruction.’ I guess my point is, why are you making it so difficult for young Australian men and women who are clearly good communicators, fit and able bodied to join the military?
Adm. Johnston : I can’t talk to the particular circumstances on an individual—
Senator RENNICK: I’m not asking you to.
Adm. Johnston : Clearly we need to grow the military to meet our targets. We are working on that recruiting system to ensure that can be the case. We’ve been on the public record that the recruiting system has not been delivering the outcome that we have needed. We have been working to address those areas in its performance that had been most impacting the recruiting rates. I would ask the specialist to talk to you more broadly.
Lt Gen. Fox : In relation to the individual, there are many reasons that people are unable to join the military. Depending on the role that they were applying for, there may have been requirements for additional information—for instance, if it was an aviation role there is a requirement for additional testing in and around medical requirements to perform aviation roles.
Senator RENNICK: This wasn’t an aviation role, by the way.
Lt Gen. Fox : Okay. ADF Gap Year does have some aviation roles. In terms of the number of people recruiting, we have apologised in the past in terms of it being too slow, but we are working on measures to address the velocity in the pipeline for people to join the ADF. Depending on the role, sometimes there are more people who want the role than targets available for the particular role, linked to the design of the Australian Defence Force. There are multiple aspects that impact a person’s journey through Defence Force recruiting. We are working with our partner Adecco in relation to speeding up that timeframe. In fact, it is a focus of work that we are undertaking this year in particular about that velocity. CDF mentioned in his opening statement that the volume of people that are applying to join the ADF is significant. In fact, for the first time in the forecast to recruit to the permanent force this year, we will exceed numbers that we haven’t recruited since the early 2000s.
Senator RENNICK: Great. I always thought the military was a place where people went to get knocked into shape. It seems to me there’s this attitude that they’ve got to sort themselves out before they join. From what I hear and read—I don’t pretend to be an expert on defence matters—there is a shortage in recruitment and you’re struggling to recruit. I don’t understand why you would be making it harder for children—especially the children of military families or with military backgrounds—to join up.
Lt Gen. Fox : Without understanding the specifics, I can’t tell you where they—
Senator RENNICK: I accept that. I’m surprised at how many emails I get, because I am not out there in the military space, because I didn’t serve in the military.
Lt Gen. Fox : There are a number of requirements to join the military. I wouldn’t say you join to knock people into shape. Given the role that the Australian Defence Force performs, we need to make sure that the people who do join the military are able to be employed and deployed in environments where they can perform their role in a safe manner both for themselves and for their teammates. We do take that enlistment criteria quite seriously in terms of how we assess people to join. We assess people based on their aptitude, their potential to undertake roles, their medical conditions, their psychological conditions, and criminal and background checks to ensure that the behaviours—
Senator RENNICK: Obviously.
Lt Gen. Fox : As well as the ability to achieve a security clearance, so that the Australian Defence Force is able to employ the capabilities and our roles as required.
