We should be hiring the best. Not filling a gender quota

REVELATIONS that military jobs are being offered ONLY to women are terrifying. War is no place for gender quotas, writes James Morrow.

Air Force female technical camp participants take on a confidence course at RAAF Base Wagga.

I’LL be honest with you, even under the new dumbed-down standards for recruits I wouldn’t have a hope in Hell of making it into the new, politically correct Australian Defence Force.

For one thing, I’d be flat-out even trying to manage the four press-ups and 20 sit-ups now required under the fitness test.

For another, I tend to use the phrase “guys” a lot around the office, and that would all but guarantee my military career looked something like the first act of Full Metal Jacket.

That said, I am absolutely thrilled that there are men and women out there with the physical and mental stamina to go out there, put their bodies on the line, and defend this fantastic country of ours.

The only thing is, I wish I could be confident that we were always getting the best people for the job.

Revelations in today’s Daily Telegraph that fitness tests are being dumbed down and many military jobs are being advertised with a “no men need apply” sign out the front are terrifying, particularly given the world we live in.

If we are not careful, the 21st century will put its predecessor to shame when it comes to mechanised bloodshed, and as a rich, underpopulated, and exposed nation we need the best and the brightest.

Israeli Defence Force soldiers prepare for the arrival of Palestinian protesters in Ni'lin, west of Ramallah. (Pic: Supplied)

And the fact is, that won’t always mean a fighting force that ticks all the diversity boxes of some HR manager.

But if a gender-equal soldiery that can hold its own against any enemy is the goal, well, there is a solution.

Australia could become like Israel, where everyone, male or female, has to sign up for a term of service at the age of 18.

There, men and women are essentially treated equally; women can, if they choose and have the skills, wind up in positions of command just as easily as men, though they can also wind up casualties (535 female Israeli soldiers have been killed in action since 1962).

And Israel has one of the toughest fighting forces anywhere in the world, a necessity of living in an area where half the neighbourhood would push them into the sea given half the chance.

But this is, to say the least, unlikely — as attractive as it might be to shock young people out of their share houses and childhood bedrooms by giving them a taste of life and death reality (this period of compulsory military service is lately credited with a number of other social benefits, from increased cardiovascular health among Israelis throughout their lives to the nation’s entrepreneurial start-up culture).

So until then, as long as we have an all-volunteer force, we’d better be taking the best who apply. No matter their gender.