Cash bonuses for Australian troops to recruit others into the military. Australian Defence Force (ADF) does have a program that offers a cash bonus of $1,000 (US$675) payments to Australian troops if they successfully encourage someone to enlist, under a two-year trial program to help meet ambitious military recruitment and retention targets. the determination, dated October 3, states.
According to the determination, a “referred person” cannot have before served in the ADF, be a close relative of the referring member, or already have a current application to join.
The two-year trial will begin within the next month to help grow the size of the Australian Defence Force and retain people.
The federal budget handed down in May showed the forecast workforce at 58,600 personnel by June 30 2025, against a requirement of more than 63,000.
This program is designed to encourage current service members to help boost recruitment numbers by referring friends ,contacts or acquaintances.
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh says under the National Defence Strategy the government is “exploring many options to improve our recruitment, to grow our defence force”.
Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh said the scheme’s design had been based on programs operated by the US and the UK.
We know that around 80 per cent of people that join the Australian Defence Force have a close connection to somebody that is currently or has previously served in the defence force,” Mr Keogh told the ABC.
Ms Parker said checks and balances were needed to ensure there were no instances of fraud, as there had been overseas.
“To really get the most out of this initiative, Defence recruiting are going to have to address their backlogs, they’re going to have to address call-back times, people who want to join getting medicals in the appropriate time frames,” she remarked .
Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge said the military had failed to meet its recruitment goals because of “deep cultural issues”.
“Turning serving soldiers into freelance recruiters with the promise of some cash is another in a long line of doomed attempts to plug the fundamental issues with staffing in Defence,” he remarked.
“The Albanese government’s response to failures appears to be merely to write more checks.”
“This initiative is an important step in recognising how our ADF personnel can contribute to our recruitment efforts in showcasing their experiences and skills to people that they know, and to assist them on the journey of not just joining our defence force, but also starting their career in the defence force.
“This is a scheme that’s not just about having ADF personnel recruit people to the defence force, but it’s also designed to encourage ongoing contact and engagement between the serving defence member and the person that they’ve referred, to provide them with support through initial training in the early parts of their service.”