Labor ticks off first $35m in bonuses to ADF personnel this week

More than $36m in bonuses for Australian Defence Force staff have so far been ticked off by the Labor government in a bid to bolster the shrinking number of uniformed personnel.

The injection of funding into ADF staffing comes after Labor raised concerns the country was facing a ‘defence personnel crisis’. Picture: Glenn Campbell

More than $36m in bonuses for Australian Defence Force staff has so far been ticked off by the Labor government in a bid to bolster the shrinking number of uniformed personnel.

The injection of funding into ADF staffing comes after Labor raised concerns the country was facing a “defence personnel crisis” that required urgent action amid mounting geopolitical tension.

A one-off $50,000 retention bonus will be given from Friday to 721 ADF personnel who were approaching the end of their mandatory service period and agreed to stay another three years; 140 eligible staff declined the offer.

A further 1130 offers are still in progress, bringing the total number of eligible officers to 1991 – which comes to almost $100m in potential bonus payouts.

Minister for Defence Personnel Matt Keogh said there was no doubt that in the current low employment environment, it was more difficult that ever to recruit and retain staff.

“It’s no secret that we need to recruit more people to join our Defence Force. But critically we need to keep those people that we have invested so much in training, who have gained such great skills in our Defence Force to continue to contribute to our capability,” he said.

“We have listened to the needs of ADF personnel and are implementing a range of initiatives to encourage the continued service of our highly skilled, trained and capable people.”

Labor has set aside $400m over four years to cover the retention bonus program, which was recommended by the Defence Strategic Review.

The Review found about 10 per cent of the ADF leave the force every year, warning the trend presented defence with “significant workforce challenges”.

Defence’s latest annual report, released in October, showed uniformed personnel numbers fell more than 3400 under target last financial year in a threat to the nation’s planned military overhaul.

The report confirmed the uniformed workforce contracted by 1161 personnel in 2022-23 to 58,642, 5.5 per cent smaller than Defence’s 62,000 target.

The figures sparked alarm in the defence community given staffing demands are only expected to grow as capabilities such as the AUKUS nuclear submarine program are brought online.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said last year that Labor would also look to expand the exchanges and co-operation with allied defence forces from the Pacific.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said recruitment from other Five Eyes countries needed to be put on the table, proposing accelerated pathways to citizenship be offered to those willing to join the ADF. The idea was backed Senator and veteran Jacqui Lambie, who said there was “no reason” for such options to be ignored.

But Mr Marles said security requirements would pose a challenge to implementing the proposal, declaring its citizens that are “really needed”.

Along with the retention program – which will run for the next two years before being reviewed by the government – Labor has ticked off the appointment of a new three-star chief of personnel to take carriage of lagging recruitment and stem the ADF’s falling numbers.