Hastie said it would be a “huge task” to grow military staff by a net 1000 people a year given recruitment numbers have only slightly exceeded ADF departures over recent years.
An ADF spokesperson said:“All members of the Australian Defence Force are recruited through a consistent process relating to the specific job role they are applying for and are required to meet Service and job standards.
“These criteria include medical,aptitude,psychological and fitness standards,background security checks and interviews to measure candidate motivation and readiness for appointment or enlistment and subsequent training.”
Hastie said Defence recruitment efforts had been too reliant on promises of “self-actualisation” and needed to appeal to “young hearts and minds searching for purpose”.
“Emphasising the service ethos is critical,” he said.
“Duty,honour and country. They may seem antiquated,but they are values and principles that call people to stand and fight for something bigger than themselves.”
As well as growing the military workforce,Hastie said Australia needs to “build strike capabilities that can hold an adversary at risk beyond the archipelago to our north. Strike bombers,precision guided missiles,and,unmanned autonomous vehicles – in the skies and in the seas below.”
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Hastie said Australia had to take seriously warnings China could move to invade Taiwan by 2027 – well before the nation acquires nuclear-powered submarines.
“The window is closing fast,” he said.
“We have a moral obligation to the Australian people to build and maintain a strong deterrent to any regional aggressor. To show that there is a great cost for any unilateral military adventurism.”
Hastie said the key lesson from the war in Ukraine is that “we must first be prepared and able to defend ourselves if we expect the support of our allies and neighbours”.
“Even in war,people like to back a winner and we need to be able to punch back,if,God forbid,we must wait for support from our friends,” he said.
Minister for Defence Personnel Matt Keogh said Hastie had “eloquently articulated the cost of a wasted decade on defence under the Coalition”.
“The Albanese government is actively engaging with Defence on a range of issues related to the breadth of recruitment across the ADF which the previous government failed to address,including through the recently announced $1 billion new Defence recruitment contract,” he said.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weeklyInside Politics newsletter here.