Since this forum has lots of Aussies, I was wondering what people thought about the idea floated by Defense Minister Robert Hill about enlisting up to 2000 Pacific Islanders to fill the numbers required by the ADF.
I don't mean this topic to be a race issue - we already successfully have people from heaps of countries/religions/walks of life serving.
It does however baffle me a bit that with 20million people in Australia we can't fill the ranks. It seems working in defense is getting lower on peoples "to do list"

I blame recruitment for our low numbers. Their standards are high and they make you wait for a year to get into basic training (they even say 1 in 15 people get accepted). Im surprised they would use islanders even though they have such high standards with Australians.

Interesting, so what countries would those be? Tonga, Samoa, Solomon etc?

I don't like to have our country defended by foriegn people who only look for money more than anything. They wouldn't give a rats arse over the defence of Australia unless they are paid.

I don't approve if it is to fill recruitment shortages. I don't think we should raise the white flag on recruiting Australian citizens (of any race, colour or creed). More promotion needs to happen although I thought this was happening and successfully. At officer level, numbers for new cadets are up at the ADF - at least Navy and Army (Creswell and Duntroon).

I'm all in favour of Australian ADF helping to train our friendly neighbours however - strengthens alliances and friendship and helps them to defend themselves, but not bringing them into Australian ADF because someone up-top has given in on home-grown recruitment. Still, if Aussie youth/young adults are turning down ADF opportunities to serve then maybe that's what we're faced with - maybe it's a tactical wake up call by the Defence Minister.

Originally Posted by mahon

Since this forum has lots of Aussies, I was wondering what people thought about the idea floated by Defense Minister Robert Hill about enlisting up to 2000 Pacific Islanders to fill the numbers required by the ADF.
I don't mean this topic to be a race issue - we already successfully have people from heaps of countries/religions/walks of life serving.
It does however baffle me a bit that with 20million people in Australia we can't fill the ranks. It seems working in defense is getting lower on peoples "to do list"

280,000 million Americans and we can barely field a 1 million man Army. Yes, serving has dropped down on people's "to do list" I believe the term is apathy. But then again I see a lot of people who want to join the Army turned back because they can not score high enough on their ASVAB and apparently don't think that any education is necessary to enlist. With the pace of technological advance a well rounded education is necessary to today's fighting forces but unfortunately many who want to join the Army think it is as simple as knowing how to pull the trigger.

Originally Posted by Italian Guy

Interesting, so what countries would those be? Tonga, Samoa, Solomon etc?

Isn't Somoa an American colony? errr, protectorate? Or are there seven Somoa's? (French Somoa, British Somoa, Belgian Somoa, American Somoa, etc.)

Originally Posted by Damien435

Isn't Somoa an American colony? errr, protectorate? Or are there seven Somoa's? (French Somoa, British Somoa, Belgian Somoa, American Somoa, etc.)

There are two Samoa's, the American Samoa and the independent State of Samoa.

It'd be PNG, East Timor, Fiji and the Solomon Islands...
We used to have a Papua New Guinea regiment for years, so it wouldn't be all that different.

I don't approve though. The money would be better spent recruiting Australians.

Just read an article about this topic:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...E31477,00.html

My question is, why are we losing qualified people from the ADF thus causing shortages and gaps? Maybe the Government should be addressing that issue/problem so we wouldn't have to look for band-aid solutions.

How do y'all feel about prior service soldiers from other countries coming over and serving in the ADF?