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Greens’ Defence spokesperson, Senator David Shoebridge, has raised major concerns about the capability of the Australian Defence Force following startling figures revealed by commissioned research conducted by the Parliamentary Library revealing an increasingly “top heavy” Australian Defence Force.
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Personnel numbers have long been a major tactical and strategic issue for the Australian Defence Force, simply by virtue of the nation’s population when compared to those of our neighbours across the Indo-Pacific.
The figures compiled by the Parliamentary Library for Greens Defence spokesperson Senator David Shoebridge reveals what he calls a “tremendously top-heavy Australian Defence Force with the number of flag officers almost doubling since 2003 from 119 to 219”.
This translates to a “one-star” level officer for every 260 full-time other officers and enlisted members of the Australian Defence Force, by comparison, in the case of the United States Armed Forces, for every “one-star” level officer, there are 1,526 other officers and enlisted members.
When it comes to the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces, for every “one-star” level officer, there are 1,252 other officers and enlisted personnel.
Senator Shoebridge said, “When you have so much gold braid and so few troops it feels like a satire, not a military. Senior Defence leadership have failed to meet a single recruiting target for the last decade while they have quietly doubled their senior ranks. This is literally rewarding failure.”
Concerningly, the research reveals that most senior level of officers in the ADF with a “star rank”, generals, admirals and air commodores have multiplied while enlisted numbers have gone backwards, falling from 62,429 in 1983 to 41,079 in 2023.
“The ADF has a whole lot of people with gold braid bossing around a shrinking group of enlisted members in khaki, blues, and whites. It is like the Vatican with dozens of popes running around decked out in the fanciest regalia for a few hundred priests. It is no wonder the military is struggling to find new recruits when there is this bloated and unaccountable leadership class searching for relevance in a shrinking Defence force,” Senator Shoebridge said.
Senator Shoebridge explained that this was part of a broader trend towards a top-heavy Australian military with the proportion of officers to enlisted members doubling from 14 per cent to 28 per cent between 1983 and 2023.
“For too long, the response from Defence to every national security issue, backed by Liberal and Labor governments, is to stick a star on someone and pump up their pay cheque. Every time a new program is announced, there is a rush to appoint a fresh admiral, a new general or a shiny air marshal, and it’s always years before we see a new ship, tank or plane,” Senator Shoebridge added.
