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The Forum > Article Comments > Culture trouble - the ADFA, the Ministers, and the Commissioner > Comments

Culture trouble - the ADFA, the Ministers, and the Commissioner : Comments

By Jocelynne Scutt, published 18/4/2011

What can we expect from another cyclical inquiry into bastardisation and the Australian Defence Forces?

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Ms Scutt's article does not mention the cultural issues arising from the military fact and point of view that the armed forces are responsible to the Queen, through the Governor-General, as Commander-In-Chief and that this makes them different from all other forms of public service. Federal Ministers come and go, the military establishment needs only to ignore any minister with which it does not see eye to eye and, given sufficient time, another minister will arrive. That new minister's advisors, both within the forces and within his own office, will no doubt have briefed the newly arrived one as to the nature of the problem and how to avoid it.

Any review of culture needs to include review of the environment which gave birth to the culture and which continues to nurture it.

Since it is not reasonable to expect a Minister of Defence to start his tenure by beheading the leaders of the Department of Defence, as so often happens to other Department Heads, where lies a solution to the problem which, at its heart, may well be a belief that somehow the military is "different" and has its own standards, not beholden to or aligned with the standards of the community at large and as expressed, from time to time, by the community's representatives in parliament and through the Minister?

Should the Prime Minister be the Commander in Chief? If not, why not?

While sticking the boot into ADFA, how much does education at ADFA cost taxpayers in comparison with, say, UNSW or a basket of Australian universities? How does this compare with officer training internationally? What are the pupil/staff ratios? What are ADFA’s objectives, how well are these objectives being achieved (quality) and at what cost? Should some or all of ADF’s activities be outsourced? Should on-campus living be discontinued? Should senior management of ADFA have military or academic backgrounds?

Should ADFA be simply written off as a bad investment; a failed experiment?
Posted by JohnBennetts, Monday, 18 April 2011 11:08:54 AM
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The Defence force is not really a lot different from much of our secularised society. The ridiculous notion of putting young male and female cadets together and expecting nothing unbecoming to happen defies logic. The men who perved on this young woman involved in the immoral affair are no different from many in society who watch porn. It was not a 'defence' culture but a society culture that was acted out. The same culture is in the Labour party, the Liberal party, football teams and women's hockey teams. The sooner we stop wasting money on inquiries when their is no intention of facing up to the adamic nature of man the better.
Posted by runner, Monday, 18 April 2011 12:09:09 PM
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Let's face it, the Military does not want their disciples mixing with other normal human beings. Why? The Military is involved in a process designed to make their graduates efficient killers.

In common with the American military, these gullible, young people are encouraged to think of themselves as special, as a cut above the rest, as valiant heroes who, to a man or a woman, are prepared to serve and die for their country. What a con!

The truth is that they are no more than cannon fodder much as soldiers have always been. They are the bunnies who obey the orders of the top brass and politicians who themselves rarely venture into the killing fields, neither them or their children.

So off to the front they go, to Iraq, a war fought on the basis of lies about WMDs, to Afghanistan where America gained access to various scarce resources, to Vietnam and Korea where they helped American imperialism, etc.

Surely, it's time we stopped wars, stopped making the armament manufacturers rich, stopped killing innocent civilians, stopped the whole war industry.

War diminishes us, turns us into savages!

http://dangerouscreation.com
Posted by David G, Monday, 18 April 2011 1:56:41 PM
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War diminishes us, turns us into savages!

I know, lets have the Taliban instead, then we will see how you luvvies get on when your cafe lattes are banned.

You cant compare University of Canberra with ADFA, because all ADFA students speak rather good English.

The ADFA students involved in petty porn did not have an ADF 'culture' because they had only been in the ADF for 6 weeks! Get ya facts right before bleating.
Posted by peter piper, Monday, 18 April 2011 2:06:57 PM
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Peter Piper writes

'War diminishes us, turns us into savages!'
Yes war is horrible but their are plenty of 'savages' on the streets that are full of drugs and would kill and rape their grandma to get hold of drugs. Oh that's right these people have are sickness so their acts can't be considered to be savages.
'
Posted by runner, Monday, 18 April 2011 2:42:36 PM
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Jocelyn

There is to be an enquiry into the current fiasco.

Wonderful!

It will show a few truths, ignored by the media ... I'll suggest some and before you condemn my conclusions ... do some basic research.

1. Kafer, the commandant at ADFA, acted according to his manual.

2. The rules set in his manual were those put in place after 1992 inquiry that put an end to the behaviour of the bullies and their bastardisation practises.

3. There have been few if any cases of sexual harassment, deviate behaviours and no rapes (Before or after)in ADFA since 1992.

4. The complaints now coming to light are all prior to the 1992 inquiry and some even go back to the Second World War ... fcs.

5. It will be seen the military has a better record, in this area than many other government run organisations.

One in particular, Sydney University where a Studeny Union survey of students found 16% of female students had been sexually harassed, assaulted, or RAPED.

6. That Females have been included in Frontline roles for some time.

7. That the abused woman cadet was given ADFA and Defence Depatment advice to postpone the pending disciplinary charges she faced.

8 That the Defence Minister Smith was either was ill-informed or lying when he ranted and suggested the disciplinary action she was subjected to was an example of ADFA and Defence Department bullying.

It appears she opted to want to clear the decks before dealing with the abusive behaviour she was subjected to and about which she had complained. She was advised against this action.

Basically it will be legitimately shown Defence Minister Smith was an utter goose and should resign.

If you can have a look at the ABC News CHannel of Monday morning 18 April, where the media interviewers were made to look shallow and silly by the Defence Force Association spokesperson ... who was obviously very very well informed and was able to articulately negate the biased and incorrect assumptions in their questions.

Looks like Smith has done his dash for the labor leadership. eh?
Posted by keith, Monday, 18 April 2011 7:38:41 PM
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