15-01-2024: The federal opposition and some military experts are calling on the Australian Labor Party (ALP) government to consider allowing foreign citizens to join the Australian Defence Force (ADF), in a bid to address a recruitment crisis. The federal government has set a goal of adding an extra 18 500 uniformed personnel by 2040, which represents a 30% increase on current levels.[1] This is likely to be a tall order, given that there was a separation rate from the ADF of 11.2% in 2022/23, even despite large numbers of ADF personnel signing on to receive a one-off retention bonus payment of $50 000.[2] The ADF already has processes which allows transfers for those currently serving in the UK (United Kingdom) and the US (United States of America), but the calls are now for that to be expanded to citizens from New Zealand, Pacific nations, Japan and even further abroad.

ADF in crisis

The ADF was formed in 1976 and only has around 77 000 personnel across the Defence department and the armed services.[3] This is a small force compared to neighbours in Asia, and globally. Yet the ADF is a body in crisis, caused by multiple factors. Despite record spending on the military, representing around 2% of Australia’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product)[4], today much of this spending is outsourced to million-dollar contractors. Even recruitment to the ADF itself is outsourced, with the multinational Adecco firm winning a 1.2 billion recruitment contract over six years from 2022.[5] Even the most gung-ho pro-military bodies admit that outsourcing in the ADF has become such a serious problem that the effectiveness of the ADF has been compromised. As is the case with other government departments, the ADF has become reliant on contracted labour and consultants. Some ADF technical staff were stripped of functions that were handed over to the private sector, which resulted in ongoing problems with providing reliable and effective services.[6]

Domestically, there are a number of political factors negatively affecting recruitment for the ADF. Not the least of these are the shocking revelations of the conduct of the ADF in the 20-year invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, from 2001 to 2021. In 2020, an investigation by Justice Paul Brereton found that 25 former or current soldiers of the elite SAS (Special Air Service) units in Afghanistan conducted morbid war crimes,[7] often against locals who were not involved in combat. The most notable of these was former SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated soldier. After the media reported on Roberts-Smith’s war crimes in Afghanistan, he sued them for defamation – but the courts found that the allegations were true and he lost his case. In the courtroom, it was found that he had kicked a handcuffed Afghan prisoner off a cliff and ordered a subordinate soldier to shoot the injured man dead. In another instance, it was found that he ordered the killing of an elderly man found hiding in a tunnel, and murdering a disabled man with a prosthetic leg with his machine gun. If this wasn’t enough, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) obtained a photograph of an Australian infantry fighting vehicle in Afghanistan on a mission in 2007 which was flying a Nazi swastika flag.[8]

No more wars

The real reasons why the ADF is facing a recruitment crisis are not difficult to pinpoint. Australian imperialism is a subordinate part of US imperialism, and thus the Australian ruling class eagerly participates in US led wars, wherever they break out. With the partial exception of the defence of Australia from Japan in World War II, every US led war that the Australian government has involved the ADF in has been an unjustifiable and predatory war of invasion and conquest. The overwhelming majority of the population strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the wars in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria could not be rationally justified either. NATO’s (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) proxy war on Russia via the arming of Nazis in Ukraine indicates the depths to which imperialism is prepared to sink. Now, the Australian government backs the Israeli Zionist state with its bombardment of Gaza. Moreover, Canberra has committed Australia to the explicitly anti-China AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States of America) war alliance, with a price tag for nuclear submarines alone of around $368 billion[9] – to the shock and dismay of even many “middle of the road” folk.

These unjustifiable wars on behalf of a declining and floundering capitalism are also a suicide mission. The US and UK ruling classes have just bombed Yemen, in a desperate attempt to draw Iran into a regional Middle East war – which was arguably the aim of setting off the Israel/Hamas proxy conflict. NATO’s certain defeat in Ukraine against Russia threatens the world with nuclear war, as does any attempt to militarise Taiwan to fight for an utterly fake “independence” against the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Youth in Australia, even if they are on board with the relentless corporate media propaganda against Iran, Russia, China, the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or “North Korea”) and so on, are hardly enthusiastic about dying in a war where Australia itself is barely threatened. In addition, it is not as if the current state of affairs in Australia is worth dying for. Unbearable repression was meted out during the fraudulent “Covid pandemic”, home ownership is out of reach for many, rental costs are basically unaffordable, health care and education costs are rising, the cost of living is skyrocketing, the climate is in a dire crisis, and the gulf between rich and poor widens.

The ruling class is aware, also, that the capitalist crisis may result in uprisings which “need” to be repressed. In that case, there is a greater likelihood that foreign citizens in the ADF will have fewer qualms with turning the guns against Australian citizens rising up against the Australian government, given their lack of family and background ties. If this was to come to pass, the Australian elite will certainly risk triggering a revolutionary crisis. Yet they scarcely have another way out. Working people should not despair at these abominable measures. It reflects the weakness of Australian and world capitalism in 2024. There is a dire need to end the threat of imperialist wars, and much else, by establishing worker’s republics throughout Australasia and beyond. Led by internationally linked Marxist vanguard parties, the raising of the oppressed to power is more than possible.

Workers League 

www.redfireonline.com 

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

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[1] www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-radical-proposal-to-recruit-foreigners-to-fight-for-australia-20230427-p5d3p7.html (10-01-2024)

[2] www.indaily.com.au/news/2024/01/05/foreign-soldier-option-to-boost-australian-defence-force-ranks/ (10-01-2024)

[3] www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/defence-facing-a-personnel-crisis-with-thousands-more-uniformed-members-needed-20221114-p5bxz7.html (10-01-2024)

[4] www.macrotrends.net/countries/AUS/australia/military-spending-defense-budget (10-01-2024)

[5] www.adecco.com.au/news/adecco-welcomes-gene-crowe-as-new-managing-director-defence-force-recruiting/59814/ (10-01-2024)

[6] www.aspistrategist.org.au/australia-must-rein-in-the-defence-bureaucracy-to-achieve-its-strategic-goals/ (10-01-2024)

[7] www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-20/afghanistan-war-crimes-brereton-report/12901328 (10-01-2024)

[8] www.reuters.com/article/australia-defence-afghanistan-nazi-idUSL4N1TG2JB/ (10-01-2024)

[9] www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2023/03/14/aukus-submarines-deal (13-01-2024)

Image: Australian Army soldiers on a marching drill. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au