Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Today I join my colleague the member for Blair in bringing to the attention of the Minister for Defence Personnel a range of issues that appeared with a concerning regularity during the estimates hearings we had recently. A well-trained and motivated workforce is an ongoing issue for any large organisation, and we fully comprehend the extra layers of complexity when that workforce involves members of the Australian Defence Force and the public servants who support them.

The latest defence budget brief of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, known as ASPI, points out that, according to Defence's latest workforce census—this is Defence's own census done in March of this year—the external, contracted workforce is now larger than any other service: Navy, Army, Air Force or APS. We have more contractors than people in uniform. How does the minister justify this extraordinary statistic? ASPI pointed out that many of these contractors are doing the work of uniformed personnel or public servants and that, in some cases, Defence is using these workers on a permanent basis just to help run projects. Minister, how do you justify having permanent contractors like this? We understand the cost of the contractor workforce in 2019-20 was $1.5 billion. ASPI has estimated this is costing Defence $1.1 billion more than if these workers were public servants. How does the minister justify this exorbitant cost? Does he think this represents value for money and a responsible use of taxpayers' money? Does the minister concede that the government's arbitrary Public Service cap is forcing Defence to spend more money to employ almost 33,000 external contractors just to plug the gaps in skills and capability?

Does he believe this exploding external-contractor cost is sustainable over time? And, does the high number of contractors risk deskilling and, more to the point, demoralising Defence's own workforce through high turnover? People who took that pledge—what is the department doing to address this? On page 24 of the portfolio budget statement, it states:

A major revision will be undertaken to produce a new Defence Strategic Workforce Plan looking out to 2040—

When are we likely to see the plan, Minister, and will it address the hollowing out of areas like CASG who rely heavily on external contractors? How will you address the brain drain of skilled ADF and APS personnel who find it more financially rewarding to be part of this ever-expanding external workforce? Where is the plan, Minister?

When it comes to the ADF workforce in recent years, the latest Defence annual report shows that in 2019-20 Defence only met 93 per cent of permanent workforce recruitment targets. They missed by seven per cent. Could you imagine if a soldier missed by seven per cent? That person would be out on their ear.

Also, we know that Defence has failed to meet its 2016 Defence white paper recruitment targets every year since 2015-16. You've missed them every year! You can't hit a target for love nor money. Luckily the soldiers in the Australian ADF are a lot better than you lot trying to run the show. What are you going to do about this? Are you on track to meet the white paper target of around 62,400? Is the new defence workforce strategy still due later this year? Can you tell us how many personnel will be in this new plan? Is the government confident Defence will have enough people to undertake the new workforce plan to operate the future force? All the capability in the world is absolutely useless if you don't have the people to operate it, and you certainly shouldn't be banging the drums of war if you don't have the people to follow through.

I'd like to address one other important thing with the minister, and I'm hoping he's paying close attention. During a period when close contact was discouraged, when many of us were isolating or working from home, sexual assault within the Australian ADF reached an almost record high. The latest Defence annual report shows 161 sexual assault incidents were reported to military police, consistent with Defence's unpublished data. This is a shocking statistic. What are you doing about it, Minister? You need to be on the front foot about this and certainly many other equally as serious issues that are going on in Defence and seriously putting in jeopardy the security of Australians here at home and whilst they're serving in the broader world.

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