Editorial: Gender wars come to ADF

EDITORIAL: The world is an increasingly dangerous place. ISIS is fighting for a foothold in the southern Philippines, while in the North Pacific, Kim Jong-un is spoiling for World War III.

THE world is an increasingly dangerous place. ISIS is fighting for a foothold in the southern Philippines, while in the North Pacific, Kim Jong-un is spoiling for World War III.

In such circumstances, it’s understandable that the Australian Defence Force would be working hard to recruit the best, the brainiest and the strongest from our population.

If only that were the case. ­Instead, according to an exclusive report in The Daily Telegraph, the ADF is making merit take a back seat to political correctness. New directives from top brass dictate that male ­recruits be given short shrift in favour of would-be female soldiers, with the mission objective to bring the proportion of women in the Australian Army up to 25 per cent.

The directive from top brass is to bring the proportion of women in the Australian Army up to 25 per cent. Picture: Lauren Black

To do this, fitness tests have been dumbed down: New ­recruits need to manage just four press-ups and 20 sit-ups to pass. As well, virtual “no males need apply” signs have been hung out, to ensure that the ­applicant pool for positions skews heavily, if not exclusively, female. Among the front line Army jobs being offered exclusively to women are combat ­engineer and positions in the Armoured Cavalry. It’s a similar story in other branches of the ADF. In the Navy, only one of 18 jobs open in the next six months is open to male applicants.

None of seven roles targeted for recruitment by the Air Force is open to men.

What’s even more worrying is pressure on recruiting officers to stay silent — though to be fair, it’s understandable that the Defence Forces might not want to telegraph their plans to all but give our military recruitment ­efforts over to the human ­resources department at Google to hostile powers.

Those officers charged with bringing strength and talent into the nation’s armed forces are understandably distressed by directives which have not only demanded that they change the focus of their efforts to suit the mandates of the ­diversity brigades, but that they have been muzzled from speaking out about the policy.

None of this is to discount the role women can and do play in Australia’s fighting forces. For our nation to be secure in a very uncertain global environment, we must draw on the best talent available, male or female.

Which is precisely why this sort of politically correct recruitment is so dangerous.

MORE PAIN AT THE PUMP?

THE cost of filling up at the bowser is a constant headache for Sydney motorists, with constantly fluctuating prices that too often seem to move only in one direction — up. And worryingly it’s a situation that could be set to get worse if a proposed takeover by energy behemoth BP of Woolworth’s Caltex petrol stations gets the go-ahead.

There could be more pain at the bowser if BP gets the go-ahead to take over Woolworth’s petrol stations. Picture: John Fotiadis

While the free market is good for consumers, fewer retailers isn’t. As the NRMA correctly put it: “The last thing the petrol industry in Australia needs is less competition.” This deal deserves very close scrutiny before it is allowed to go through.

ALP LOOKS AFTER ITS MATES

WHO do the unions work for? Their members, or their bosses? It’s a question almost as old as the labour movement itself, and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is rightly asking it again as he ­renews his focus on Bill Shorten and his time as boss of the Australian Workers’ Union.

Turnbull went so far to suggest that had present-day laws on union corruption been in force during Shorten’s time as a union chief, the Opposition leader could have faced criminal charges and even jail time.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has come under fire by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about his days as a union boss. Picture: AAP/Lukas Coch

Either way, The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Shorten’s work as workplace relations minister during Labor’s last turn in government has saved his union mates a pretty penny.

According to a government analysis, the notorious CFMEU would have paid more than $4 million over the past five years had the Australian Building and Construction Commission not been abolished by the ALP. And of course there is the matter of the $75,000 paid by Cleanevent to Shorten’s AWU, a fact revealed by the Heydon royal commission. Turnbull is right to raise these questions about the man who wishes to be our next prime minister.