A larger, enhanced Australian Defence Force reserve component is vital to Australia’s security. However, it has been largely overlooked in discussions around achieving greater self-reliance and meaningful capability in short order.
Around one third of the total strength of the ADF is composed of reservists. Despite this, the ADF reserves are rarely mentioned by defence commentators and national security experts who are, quite rightly, calling for rapid enhancement of the ADF in terms of numbers, equipment and resilience.
Even at current resource levels, which are modest and spread across several different programs and services within Defence, the ADF reserves are a very cost-effective force multiplier. They provide key elements for homeland defence and contribute to federal responses to natural disasters. Some vital capabilities within Defence, such as health support and medical services, rely on specialist reserve personnel every day. Many otherwise vacant positions in the permanent force are currently filled by reservists, keeping routine operational, administrative and logistic functions of the ADF machine ticking over.
The Defence Reserves Association contends that if even an additional 1 percent of the annual Defence budget were directed to the ADF reserves, the effect would be transformational, potentially creating a much larger, more capable reserve force with greater readiness. For example, doubling the strength of the army reserve would enable it to both meet homeland defence tasks and support the permanent forces if they were committed to combat operations. This concurrency would be vital in any national defence emergency.
In the navy and air force, the reserve element is mostly composed of ex-permanent personnel filling gaps in the full-time structure, together with some specialists in areas such as health. The re-establishment of separate reserve units within the navy and air force is sorely needed to protect base facilities, support other vital infrastructure for fleet assets and aircraft, and provide personnel to replace combat losses.
Another imperative is the expansion of the army’s Regional Force Surveillance Units that operate across the Australia’s northern arc from the Pilbara to Cape York. These units are predominantly staffed by locally based reservists, with many indigenous Australians serving in the patrols that monitor some of our most exposed and remote coastlines. They deserve the best equipment the nation can provide, especially for mobility and communications.
The 2023 Defence Strategic Review recommended a strategic review of the ADF reserves. This was completed by Defence late last year and has been endorsed by the government. The review report included some good recommendations, such as improving conditions of service for reservists and creating new reserve capabilities in cyber and space.
It also recommends expanding the successful gap year scheme, where young Australian men and women enlist for a year in the ADF and can then elect to continue to serve—and many do. The annual gap year scheme is usually oversubscribed, which shows that there are plenty of young Australians who are willing to serve in the ADF if the settings and incentives are right. An example of such an incentive is relieving higher-education debt for reservists bringing key qualifications and skills to the ADF.
The Defence Reserves Association, which provided a submission to the ADF reserves review, supports the review’s recommendations. However, it also urges more ambitious targets for the overall number of reservists and the accelerated growth of key reserve units and capabilities.
For the ADF to grow, it must resolve its recruitment issues. Its current model of outsourced testing and processing is failing. The recruiting function should be returned to the ADF and, in the case of the reserves, to individual units. This could be trialled in selected reserve units where it was successful for decades with modest resources. Current recruiting shortfalls are not due to a shortage of Australians motivated to serve their country—they are primarily a result of a broken process that causes lengthy delays between initial interest and eventual enlistment. Reverting to an approach based on unit and parent services may help to fix the current recruiting crisis, and piloting this approach in the ADF reserves is a low-risk option.
In the current strategic and security climate, we must invest more in our reservists. There are compelling reasons to engage more Australians in some form of part-time military service through the reserves, such as the potential to grow our capability, strengthen national cohesion and improve operational resilience. With strong leadership at the national level and adequate resourcing this goal can, and should, be realised this decade.