Strengthening our ADF Reserves
This opinion piece has been endorsed by the DRA National Executive as a tool to assist any DRA member in engaging with their local candidates during the election campaign on the important role of the ADF Reserves in National Security. The article has been made available to a number of security and defence commentators and mainstream media for their information and publication if they wish. The article has also been provided to the offices of both Mr Marles and Mr Hastie.
On any given day approximately one third of the total strength of the Australian Defence Force is comprised of Reservists. Despite this the ADF Reserves are rarely mentioned by defence commentators and national security experts who are, quite rightly, calling for rapid enhancement of the ADF in terms of numbers, equipment and resilience. A Reservist is anyone serving in the ADF who is not enlisted in the Permanent Force and may be studying at university, working in a demanding civilian job or might be a former Permanent Force member with a range of part time work and community volunteering commitments.
A larger, enhanced ADF Reserve component is vital to Australia’s security but has been largely overlooked in the current defence debate on how to achieve greater self-reliance and meaningful capability in short order. Even at current levels of resourcing, which are modest and spread across several different programs and services within Defence, the ADF Reserves are a very cost-effective force multiplier. The ADF Reserves currently provide key elements for homeland defence and contribute to Commonwealth responses to natural disasters. Significantly some vital capabilities within Defence, such as health support and medical services, rely on specialist Reserve personnel every day. Many otherwise vacant positions in the Permanent Force are currently filled by Reservists, keeping the ADF machine ticking over in terms of routine operational, administrative and logistic functions.
The Defence Reserves Association contends that if even an additional 1% of the annual Defence budget were directed in a dedicated and focussed way to the ADF Reserves there would be a transformational effect and a much larger, more capable and higher readiness Reserve could be generated. For example a doubling of Army Reserve strength would enable it to both meet homeland defence tasks and provide reinforcement to the Regular Army if it was committed to combat operations - this concurrency would be vital in any national defence emergency.
In the Navy and Air Force the Reserve element is currently mostly comprised of ex-Permanent Force individuals filling gaps in the full-time structure, together with some specialist professionals, especially in health and related areas. The re-establishment of separate Reserve units within Navy and Air Force to protect base facilities and support other vital infrastructure for our fleet assets and aircraft, as well as providing the nucleus of personnel to replace combat losses is sorely needed. Another imperative is the expansion of the Army’s Regional Force Surveillance Units that operate across the continent’s northern arc from the Pilbara to Cape York. These units are predominantly staffed by locally based Reservists, with many indigenous Australians serving in the patrols that monitor some of our most exposed and remotest coastlines. They deserve the best equipment the nation can provide, especially in terms of their mobility and communications.
The 2023 Defence Strategic Review recommended a Strategic Review of the ADF Reserves and this was completed by Defence late last year and has been endorsed by Government for implementation. There are good recommendations in the Review’s report, including improved conditions of service for Reservists, creating new Reserve capabilities in Cyber and Space and expanding the successful Gap Year scheme, where young Australian men and women enlist for a year in the ADF and can then elect to continue to serve, which many do.
The annual Gap Year scheme is usually oversubscribed and shows that there are plenty of young Australians who are willing to serve in the ADF if the settings and incentives are right. Providing significant relief of HECS debts for Reservists bringing key qualifications and skills to the ADF is an example of one sensible option. The Defence Reserves Association, which provided a submission to the ADF Reserves Review, supports all the Review’s recommendations but urges more ambitious targets in terms of the overall number of Reservists and the accelerated growth of key Reserve units and capabilities.
To grow the ADF in overall terms the current problems in recruiting must be resolved. The current outsourced testing and processing model is failing the ADF. Returning the recruiting function to the ADF itself and in the case of the ADF Reserves, to individual units, could be trialled in selected Reserve units where it was successfully done for decades with modest resources. Current recruiting shortfalls are primarily the result of a broken process resulting in lengthy delays between initial interest and eventual enlistment, not a shortage of Australians motivated to serve their country. Reverting to a unit and parent service based approach stands a good chance of fixing the current so-called “recruiting crisis”. Piloting this approach in the ADF Reserves is a low risk option and is certainly worth a try.
In the current strategic and security climate we have no time to lose in investing more in our Reservists, people once described by Sir Winston Churchill as “twice the citizen”. There are compelling reasons of capability, national cohesion and operational resilience to engage more of our citizens in some form of part time military service through our ADF Reserves. With strong leadership at the national level and adequate resourcing this goal can be realised this decade – and must be as our national security demands it.