The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been facing a recruitment crisis for years. A lack of young people wanting to join has prompted a variety of responses from the force, including opening eligibility to some foreigners.
Given talk of chronic shortages and a perennial recruitment crisis in Western volunteer forces, it’s somewhat surprising to see there’s finally been some progress.
Recruitment has risen by 17% over last year’s figure. This exceeds planned growth and reverses a steady decline over the past 15 years, albeit still falls around 1,000 people short of the financial year target of 8,105.
