‘Had enough’: Australians face year-long wait to enlist in the military

Thousands of Australians are frustrated after being forced to wait more than a year to be enlisted into the military, despite the ADF being thousands of troops short.

Labor’s plan to slash Defence Force recruitment times is flailing, with Australians continuing to wait more than 12 months to be enlisted into the military.

Performance issues with the federal government’s external recruitment company, who are being paid $1.4 billion for their services, significantly slowed the processing times of a whopping 64,000 new ADF applicants last year alone.

It comes at a time when the ADF, which remains thousands of troops below full strength, invites soldiers from the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand to immediately join our ranks.

The Daily Telegraph has heard from families of multiple young Australians who have been forced to endure frustrating wait times. Some have simply withdrawn from screening.

All of them have asked to use their first names only to protect their identities and avoid impacting their service.

One father, Dave claimed his son had been accepted in March 2024, but ten months later was still awaiting official paperwork and training details.

“He has been an Australian citizen since he was two years old. We have military history in our family. They are still asking him for the same personal information which we believe we have already provided” Dave said.

Some Australians have been left waiting for months. Picture: Eva Morgan

Another man, Danny also revealed his grandson had “applied at the end of January, 2022” at the age of 19 when he was “super fit”, but on his enlistment form he put down that he’d had illness when he was a kid and an injury.

Danny said his grandson passed the required physical examinations, but the ADF sent him to multiple specialists.

“Everything took so long. He was dealing with three different (recruitment) people. About eight months in he said - I’ve had enough. I told him to persevere with it and almost a year later he finally got in. He loves it… but it just took so long that it really made him despondent.”

Michael, a 22 year old Sydneysider said he had “given up” on the application process after 18 months, with Defence asking for 10 years of references, a request he said “felt impossible to achieve.”

The new stories are at odds with claims from Minister for Defence Personnel Matt Keogh two years ago, who told this masthead the “recruitment process averages about 300 days, (but) we are looking to bring that down to about 100 and if we can get it shorter then we will do that as well.”

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is roughly 5000 troops short. Picture: Agvi Firdaus

The ADF is roughly 5,000 troops short of “workplace requirement”, despite the introduction of a $40,000 retention bonus and a whopping $61 million advertising campaign entitled “unlike any other job.”

When approached for comment - Defence Minister Richard Marles said the ADF had “made a number of changes to streamline the recruitment process… for individuals aligned with the role they’re seeking to undertake.”

In a statement, Defence said “the time taken to recruit a candidate is dependent on the candidate and the role. In some cases, roles have hundreds of applicants for a relatively small number of positions.”

Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Defence of Australia said the ADF have made a number of changes to streamline the recruitment process. Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

The spokesman said 64,000 Australians had applied to join the ADF in 2024, an increase of 19 per cent from the previous year, while enlistments are forecast to rise by 20 per cent.

Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie said he had “met too many young Australians who have been messed around by the Defence recruiting system and end up choosing a job in the mines or elsewhere instead.”

“I’m not convinced we can keep outsourcing the task of recruitment to civilian contractors who don’t understand the unique mission and requirements of the ADF as war fighters” Mr Hastie said.

Australia’s military recruitment is outsourced to Swiss-owned company Adecco, costing taxpayers’ $1.4 billion. The Defence Department recently hit Adecco with an official “performance notice” for failing to achieve its screening targets.

Originally published as ‘Had enough’: Australians face year-long wait to enlist in the military