The Australian Defence Force has seen a surge of 28% in applications from the last financial year, resulting in the highest intake since 2009. Despite this, the ADF has fallen short of recruitment targets.

Canberra

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) received over 75,000 applications in the last financial year, marking a 28% increase from the previous year and resulting in the highest intake since 2009. Despite this surge, only just over 7,000 recruits were accepted, falling short of the target of 8,105. Staff retention has improved, with separation rates dropping from 11% to 7.9%. The ADF has broadened its recruitment efforts, including outreach through social media and opening applications to citizens from Five Eyes partner nations such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. While the government aims to further expand the Defence Force in response to security challenges and the AUKUS partnership, opposition voices argue that current improvements are insufficient and that more action is needed.

Australian Defence Force falls short of recruitment target

In the call to arms, Australians are coming in droves. There are no limits to what I can achieve. Last financial year, more than 75,000 people applied to join the ADF, a 28% increase on the year before. Of those applications, just over 7,000 people were recruited, making it the highest intake since 2009, short of its target of 8,105. There is a desire to serve amongst young Australians. With Defence turning to social media giant TikTok and online video games to recruit young Australians. It's a good strategy to identify with that, I guess you would call them Gen Z. Including Chloe Familton, who is just 19 years old. I've really always been intrigued and obsessed with aviation, so I think this was very much a natural progression for me. Staff retention within the ADF has also improved. Separation rates have continued to fall from 11% down to just 7.9%. Since January, the ADF has opened up its recruitment to our Five Eyes partner nations, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. We have ambitions to grow the Defence Force through the back end of this decade and into the 2030s. And they'll need to, with Australia's AUKUS investment and the thousands of skilled jobs that come with it. But with the current threats of the war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East and the growing presence of China in the Indo-Pacific, the opposition warns our Defence Force numbers are still way behind. More does need to be done and not enough has been done. This improvement is too little and it's too late. We can't rest on our laurels here. Just because we've had a reasonably good result so far, we need to do more and we need to achieve more.

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Jerusalem

Middle East Conflict

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Washington

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Kamchatka Peninsula

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As Suwayda

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Brussels

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Kyiv

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Moscow

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Breakdown