Recruitment and diversity issues plaguing Australia’s military will only embolden the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to former soldier and current federal member for Menzies, Keith Wolahan.
Wolahan made the comments to The Epoch Times as Australian leaders monitor the activities of a trio of CCP People’s Liberation Army-Navy warships as they circumnavigate the country.
On Feb. 21, the flotilla caused a stir when it began apparent live military exercises in the Tasman Sea, causing several commercial flights to be rerouted.
New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins warned the naval task group was “extremely capable” with the Renhai-class cruiser able to carry ballistic missiles with a range of about 1,000 kilometres.
Victorian-based MP Wolahan warned that if such a situation ever escalated, Australia was far from ready to defend itself.
“There is a broader worry about bureaucracy in defence. And that manifests itself not only in recruiting but also in equipment that is ready for service,” he said.
“So it does worry me that we might have, on paper, a certain number of equipment, but it’s not ready for service.”
Wolahan served as a captain in the Australian Army, and was dispatched on combat tours to Timor Leste and Afghanistan.
Recruiters Not Striking While the Iron is Hot
Wolahan is also not happy about recruitment delays he hears about in his suburban Melbourne electorate, saying the Australian Defence Force (ADF) was short about 5,000 personnel. The standing military force numbers about 60,000.“There are two aspects to that—one is a retention issue. People don’t feel like it’s the profession they signed up for, and then left.
“The other part is a recruiting issue. Throughout this electorate, I keep meeting parents and people who have said, ‘My son or daughter applied, and it’s been 12 months,’ or ‘It’s been 18 months.’
“And for someone who is 17 to 20 [years old], a year or a year-and-a-half [of waiting] is everything to them, especially if they’re talented, ambitious and driven.
“If you don’t strike while the iron is hot, they’ll move on to something else. So, red tape is strangling the defence force.”
The Epoch Times has contacted the Australian Defence Department for further comment.
DEI Issues Also Influencing the ADF
The MP also said he had heard of staff leaving the ADF due to diversity and inclusion policies.“[Meritocracy] used to be an idea that the left and right could agree on regarding the best person for the job,” Wolahan said.
“There should be no barriers, and that includes no barriers to race and no barriers to gender.
ASIO Director-General’s Security Warning Concerning: Wolahan
Last week, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said “Australia has never faced so many threats at scale, at once.”He also revealed foreign state-sponsored murder plots on home soil, a surge in anti-Semitic attacks, and spies targeting AUKUS secrets meant Australia was far from immune from volatility in the world.
Burgess added the situation would only worsen in the coming months, and if any country had designs on breaching Australia’s security and AUKUS alliance, the nation would respond with force.
Wolahan said it was imperative that Australians unite with a common goal of defeating every security threat posed to the freedom of this country.
“I listened to the director general of ASIO’s brief. It was [worrying]. And he noted that it is a scale and level of seriousness that we haven’t seen in our time,” he said.
“I know it’s taken very seriously. But it’s also one of the challenges for a multicultural nation–what are the things that unite us as Australians?
“That’s more than just an abstract concept. That’s important for who we are, and that we can bring people together to make sure we’re resistant to any other nation’s attempt to divide us.”
The AUKUS agreement—a trilateral security partnership struck up by then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 2021—is expected to cost up to $368 billion.
The core of the agreement is for Australia to be armed with nuclear-powered submarines, joining a small club of nations. Further, it codifies several existing partnerships between the three countries involving the sharing of artificial intelligence, quantum technology, drone tech, as well as hypersonic missiles among others.
Calls for Migration to be Better Managed
Box Hill—an expanding suburb in the Menzies electorate with one of the largest Chinese-speaking populations in the country– is ironically, feeling the pinch of high migration numbers, according to Wolahan.Net overseas migration was 446,000 in 2023-24, slightly down from 536,000 a year earlier.
Wolahan believes these numbers are unsustainable, particularly when compared to the average of 220,000 immigrants per year over 10 previous years.
He is not opposed to immigration, but he believes the Albanese government has allowed too many in.
“The main issues are cost-of-living. The amount of families living paycheck to paycheck is enormous. And housing–people are worried their children won’t have a home to raise a family in,” he said.
“People are feeling the squeeze in terms of development. There’s bipartisan support for a generous migration scheme, but it is out of whack at the moment.
“They’re feeling it in traffic and in a lack of open space. Particularly in Box Hill–we need more housing, but people also want parks, schools and hospitals as well.”
