Pacific Islanders to bolster ADF...

mahon

Active member
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. :?
 
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.
 
mahon said:
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.

Italian Guy said:
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.)
 
Damien435 said:
Italian Guy said:
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.)

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.
 
How do y'all feel about prior service soldiers from other countries coming over and serving in the ADF?
 
We have service people from Overseas on exchange programs already and that tends to work well. It's good to have them. But I would want the Aussie Government to do everything possible to get its numbers for an adequate Defence Force from its own population. I think it's strange for a country to have to appeal to other countries for personnel support when we have so many people aged 17 - 35 not coming forward for Defence service.
 
I was referring more to people coming over serving more or less as a stepping stone to becoming an Aussie citizen, seperate from the exchange programme.
 
Bulldog,
we did that with ex kiwi airforce personnel. Most grabbed the money and beneits, did the minimum time then left for better paying civvie jobs.
So many people are leaving the ADF due to the high tempo of work and deployments and very little reward for it.
A aapt on the back will go only so far.
A sign of the times.
 
I ask because I am in the midst of the process right now to come on board the ADF. I figure its better to earn the citizenship rather than just doing a skills migration.
 
Bulldogg, I think if you are a member of IM Forums then you should be welcome into the ADF with open arms, and I'll shout you a beer

:salute2:
 
Cheers Padre, second round is on me. ;)

RAinf, why "bad idea"? I really would like any and all opinions on this.
 
I think it's strange for a country to have to appeal to other countries for personnel support when we have so many people aged 17 - 35 not coming forward for Defence service.

I don't know Padre, i think we have enough scots to form a foreign legion.
 
Hmm...recruiting foreign soldiers...it's an interesting concept.

I'm lukewarm about the idea. I'm not sure how exactly desperate the ADF is for numbers [it sounds like they are quite desperate at least], but I think recruiting PIs into the force would be a short-term, band-aid solution at best.

I think they have to address the reasons why numbers are falling in the ADF. They can't keep recruiting foreign soldiers. Sure, they've put out glossy TV ads and at one stage bombarded people with exhortions to join but I don't think that's enough.

Maybe, just maybe another reason why people don't want to join is because they have heard stories of abuse and harassment. I was reading a very recent RAAF newsletter where there was a call for soldiers to be more respectful towards each other [!] so it seems this problem is quite real and ingrained.

[Anyways, I'm still intending to join the RAAF - harassment or no harassment. Overt harassment is better than sutle harassment, IMO....but I digress].
 
I dislike the idea of recruiting foriegners...it just seems they won't have the patriotic sense of purpose a home boy would have. I don't know of course since I haven't been in the military yet. Anyone in the French Foriegn legion give some insight on this topic?
 
Back
Top