Figures compiled for the Greens by the Parliamentary Library show a tremendously top-heavy Australian Defence Force with the number of flag officers almost doubling since 2003 from 119 to 219. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means there is a one star level officer for every 260 full-time uniformed members. This is way out of whack with comparable militaries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most senior level of officers in the ADF with a \u2018star rank\u2019, Generals, Admirals and Air Commodores, have multiplied while enlisted numbers have gone backwards falling from 62,429 in 1983 to 41,079 in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is part of a broader trend towards a top-heavy military with the proportion of officers to enlisted members doubling from 14 to 28% between 1983 and 2023. International comparisons on senior pay and numbers are below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator David Shoebridge, Greens Defence Spokesperson, said: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you have so much gold braid and so few troops it feels like a satire, not a military.\u201d \u201cThe ADF has a whole lot of people with gold braid bossing around a shrinking group of enlisted members in khaki, blues and whites. It is like the Vatican with dozens of Popes running around decked out in the fanciest regalia for a few hundred priests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is no wonder the military is struggling to find new recruits when there is this bloated and unaccountable leadership class searching for relevance in a shrinking defence force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor too long the response from Defence to every national security issue, backed by Liberal and Labor governments, is to stick a star on someone and pump up their paycheck. Every time a new program is announced there is a rush to appoint a fresh admiral, a new general or a shiny air marshall, and it’s always years before we see a new ship, tank or plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf fancy flags kept us safe then Australia would certainly have a world-leading military.\u201d Senator Shoebridge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n International Comparisons<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n International comparisons show just how braid-heavy the ADF has become:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Figures compiled for the Greens by the Parliamentary Library show a tremendously top-heavy Australian Defence Force with the number of flag officers almost doubling since 2003 from 119 to 219. This means there is a one star level officer for every 260 full-time uniformed members. This is way out of whack with comparable militaries around … Continue reading “MORE GENERALS, FEWER TROOPS, AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE LEADERSHIP TOPPLES OVER WITH THE WEIGHT OF GOLD BRAID”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24362,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24361\/revisions\/24362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201c\u2018Senior Defence leadership have failed to meet a single recruiting target for the last decade while they have quietly doubled their senior ranks. This is literally rewarding failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not just numbers where the Australian military topples over at the top, it\u2019s also on pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n