Remember the launch of the recruitment of Kiwis into the ADF ? Yeah, that's not going so well. Canberra Times article from last month :
Just three foreign recruits despite new rules
By Eleanor Campbell,The Canberra Times
Thursday 10 April 2025 at 12:00:00 am AEST| 522 words, 442cm²
ONLY three foreign recruits have joined Australia's military nearly a year since the government loosened entry criteria to help fill a critical shortfall in uniformed troops, with hundreds of foreigners flocking to join the armed forces.
About 519 New Zealanders have applied to serve in the nation's armed forces since Defence's eligibility rules were widened in July 2024 to allow non-citizens.
Changes to increase Defence's potential recruitment pool were rolled out after the ADF fell 5000 personnel short of its annual staffing target of 63,500 last year.
With the average wait time for a domestic recruit sitting above 250 days, The Canberra Times can reveal three foreign applicants have been enlisted as of April 9.
Two foreign recruits from New Zealand have joined the navy, and one individual has enlisted to join the army.
Professor Peter Dean, who co-led the Defence Strategic Review that called to recruit citizens from friendly nations, welcomed a boost in foreign recruitment but said the enlistment figures were "exceptionally disappointing".
"It's frankly not good enough and demonstrates the systems' inability to adapt at the speed required," he told The Canberra Times.
"Part of this process was to accept more risk to alleviate the risk being carried by the shortage of personnel. These statistics show that this outcome is yet to be achieved."
As well as meeting entry standards and security requirements, permanent residents wishing to join the ADF must have lived in Australia for at least one year prior to applying, not served in a foreign military in the past two years, and be able to attain Australian citizenship.
Eligible American, British and Canadian citizens have been able to apply to join the military since January 1, and 74 applications are currently being processed.
Once accepted, foreign applicants need to perform 90 days of military service to be fast-tracked into Australian citizenship.
Asked about the processing delays, a spokesperson for Defence Minister Richard Marles pointed to a spike in recruitment under the Labor government.
In the last 12 months, more than 69,000 people applied to join the ADF, an increase of more than 18 per cent from the previous year.
Mr Marles told 2GB last month that the average processing time for an application had fallen from 300 days to 268 days over the past two years.
"There's a message here to hang in there. But the main message here is that we are going to get this processing time down," he said.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie has suggested ADF recruitment be brought back inhouse following failures on behalf of Defence's overseas contractor to meet its performance targets.
"There's a real culture of risk aversion within recruiting," he said in February.
"I'd like to see more uniformed personnel put on the job because they're the ones who should be selecting who they fight with."
