Image crisis: National reset needed for Australian Defence Force uniforms in public

The Land Down Under has arguably fallen by the wayside in terms of promoting old-fashioned World War II national patriotism and normalisation of interactions with Australian Defence Force personnel in civilian life.

Over the last few decades, a generally accepted rule has taken root that our ADF personnel should, where possible, avoid wearing their military uniform in public, that they are encouraged not to talk about the profession or that doing either action should require navigating through various lengthy approval processes.

In the public environment, uniformed personnel might not be inclined to make public appearances because it could elicit adverse behaviour from civilians, there may be a current internal culture identifying those wearing uniform in public as shameful (posing or cringeworthy) and, of course, the paranoia that serving members of the military must reflect the standards of the ADF and could therefore be more intensely pursued by the media and Defence.

Unfortunately, this failure to launch on patriotic image promotion also coincides with increasingly hot military operations in the Indo-Pacific and the ADF’s own recruitment crisis struggling to attract new recruits.

In 2023, the federal government’s Defence Strategic Review (DSR) recommended an increase in recruitment speed from application to enlistment and the process of recruitment should be achieved in days, not months.

The DSR also recommended changes to Defence’s recruitment framework, a comprehensive strategic review by 2025 of the ADF Reserves, and consideration of the reintroduction of a Ready Reserve Scheme.

The previous federal government announced a target of growing Australia’s armed forces to 80,000 uniformed personnel by 2040 to operate newly purchased military equipment. In addition, former chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell, speaking at the Senate estimates earlier this year, said current inflow rates remain below the level required to maintain the Defence Force as it operates with more than 4,308 people below its authorised strength of 62,735.

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Australia will require “considerable effort to remediate recruiting and retention challenges”, according to comments made during the Senate foreign affairs, defence and trade legislation committee (Senate estimates) on 14 February this year.

But how can we expect people to join the Australian Defence Force when the national collection of potential recruits only see their military personnel in uniform once a year, paying tribute to the lives lost in past wars around the cenotaph on Anzac Day?

According to the Australian Army dress manual, personnel are allowed to wear Australian MultiCam camouflage uniform when travelling in public and on domestic civil aircraft. However, it may not be worn at meetings or demonstration held for religious or political purposes, at a civil law court, at non-official recognised activities, unless authorised by a commanding officer.

Officially on paper nothing is going wrong, but the reality is that Australia has previously taken some backward steps in regard to promoting a normalised and positive image of uniformed personnel in public.

It’s no secret that Australian Defence Force veterans who served in the Vietnam War were encouraged to hide their involvement and uniforms before the vengeance-seeking eyes of the public in the 1970s.

Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia national president Ken Foster, who served in the Australian army in Malaya, South Vietnam and Papua New Guinea across a 21-year career, said veterans were targeted by the public when they returned home from the Vietnam War.

“They came out of the jungle in Vietnam in the morning and would be back in Sydney by the afternoon,” he said, speaking to the ABC in 2016.

“The national servicemen got off the plane, were told to change into their civvies and don’t tell anyone where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing.

“To target the actual servicemen who didn’t have any say one way or another, whether they were going to be there or not, was certainly disappointing.”

More recently, the public image of uniformed personnel was discouraged at home while international coalition operations led by the US were ongoing in Afghanistan to destroy the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation.

During that time, British and French soldiers, among other nations, were advised not to wear their uniform outside military bases and barracks to avoid being targeted by terrorist organisations for high-profile televised attacks. Those military-focused threats have now largely dissolved on home soil.

Final thoughts

Australia is now at a crossroads where promotion of the ADF, World War II national patriotism and normalisation of military personnel is needed to bolster recruitment for incoming threats in the Indo-Pacific region.

No one has all the correct answers to kick-start ADF recruitment and national patriotism but it is time to recognise that there’s a demand for a national reset on the opinions and policies regarding uniformed Australian Defence Force in public. It’s time to encourage our soldiers to walk tall and wear their uniforms with pride in public and, hopefully, encourage national unity for a more effective and influential Australia.