Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share 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.

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