Willis: People running the ADF to blame for lack of willing recruits

The ADF needs to increase the number of soldiers but people don’t want to join the military, and those running the show are to blame, writes James Willis.

Nothing should scare us more than the comical leadership and strategy of the Australian Defence Force. You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

It was recently revealed that the ADF spent a whopping $60m on recruitment advertising in the 2022-2023 financial year but has failed to evaluate if it actually worked.

A report from the National Audit Office found that while the ADF “monitors the performance of its active campaigns”, it “does not conduct evaluations to determine their effectiveness, as it is required to do so”. In other words, the ADF can’t even say if its giant advertising blitz, worth $60m of your money, resulted in a significant uptake in people joining the military.

For those wondering why this is important, our recruitment numbers are alarmingly diabolical.

In February, outgoing ADF boss Angus Campbell revealed in Senate estimates that our army, navy and air force are 4300 troops below the operating requirement.

Australian Defence Force personnel participate in the 2024 Anzac Day march in Melbourne. The ADF can’t even say if its $60m advertising blitz, resulted in a significant uptake in people joining the military. Picture: Diego Fedele/Getty Images

The situation is so dire that we have had to immediately allow “eligible New Zealanders” to apply to join the ranks.

Permanent residents from the UK, US and Canada can then join up from January 2025.

The ADF has also said it will slash the time it takes to train a soldier, offer $50,000 in retention bonuses and even reduce some of the long-standing physical and medical requirements.

Warren Brown’s take on spies in the ADF.

This reeks of desperation, but here’s the ugly reality.

The biggest factor in poor recruitment is poor leadership.

And an appalling lack of support has made the idea of enlisting in the army beyond unappealing.

Too often we have witnessed our soldiers disgracefully abandoned and left to fend for themselves.

Having served in horrific conditions in Afghanistan, against a barbaric enemy who failed to obey the rules of war, thousands of our returning servicemen and women came home to a whole new battle.

Innocent soldiers were smeared by the findings of the Brereton Report which, almost four years after its release, has resulted in only one Australian soldier actually being charged with a criminal offence.

Innocent soldiers serving in Afghanistan were smeared by the findings of the Brereton Report. Picture: Department of Defence

Vulnerable individuals and units were the subject of disgusting rumour and innuendo by media outlets, in particular the ABC, which published a stream of untested and unverified claims.

When these brutal hits were coming, do you reckon the ADF went into bat for its own people?

Having covered this issue extensively, I can assure you that they didn’t.

They are the kings of the “no comment” response.

Our national defence strategy has identified the need to increase the number of soldiers between now and 2040.

A $60m advertising campaign with no performance metrics won’t plug the holes.

People, sadly, don’t want to join the military, and the people running the show are to blame.

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