It shouldn’t take over a year to be recruited into the Defence Force.
Young people can’t wait that long and will look for other jobs.
No wonder numbers in the military are declining.
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee
06/06/2024
Estimates
DEFENCE PORTFOLIO
Department of Defence
Senator RENNICK: My question’s in regard to recruitment. I’ve received an email from a constituent who’s the mother of two boys. She, herself, is in the military. This is what it said: ‘Our first son wanted to join the RAAF like his father. Our son applied while we were posted to Brisbane. He was knocked back because he did not have a drivers licence despite the role not requiring one. In fact, his father confirmed several members of the squadron he was in did not have a drivers licence. The second attempt was after we’d posted to Adelaide. The uniform member stated he was an ideal candidate. They did not have any spots for males in his field. Given we have a retention crisis, I would have thought it should not matter if you are male or female. The third attempt and final success was again in Adelaide. Then there was a waiting game. He waited so long, in fact, our family was posted to Brisbane again. His recruitment journey was 1,096 days.’
The second example is: ‘Our youngest son wishes to enter the Navy. He applied in January 2023. It is now May 2024 and he is still waiting on the medical section. Our youngest dreams of being a submariner. We have a chronic shortage putting subs in dry dock. Our son has written to Andrew Hastie in the hope he may have a solution. I am writing to you as I am frustrated that our boys who want to serve our country are being blocked at every turn.’ Is there any reason why it’s taking so long to get young recruits into the military? Can you speak to that, please.
Lt Gen. Fox: Firstly, I just want to say thank you to the family for their persistence. I apologise to them that it has taken so long. We do have a backlog in applications and processing applications at the moment, predominantly in medical, and we are taking actions to remediate that. That’s what’s in play at the moment.
Senator RENNICK: I guess the risk is—if they’ve got to wait a long period of time and they need to get an income—that they may start another job and then lose interest in joining the military altogether. I just wanted to bring this to your attention, because they are a dedicated military family and, obviously, it’s great if we can bring their children through as well.
Lt Gen. Fox: Yes, Senator.
Senator RENNICK: Thank you.
