"Despite an intensive recruitment campaign, including incentives, recruitment is about 5000 short of target."

Maybe there's a take-away in that for you.
Nobody wants to give their life so that you can have a war with China.
Why don't you sign up yourself, since you're so enthusiastic about it?
Or do you think you're too important?

Better still...

Why don't you grab your rifle and jumpsuit and we'll parachute you in.
- We'll let Xi know you're coming.

If you want to die for a cause you believe in then that's one thing.
If you want others to die for your cause then it would be better if you went down to Victoria and got yourself voluntarily euthenaised.

Perhaps, but shouldn't be limited to the pacific but include Asia and south America.

Excellent character and reasonable English language skills would improve their chances, methinks. As would I.T. skills, and computer literacy. We need nuclear technicians for the new subs and a nuclear industry as a support measure for new subs.

As for citizenship, that would need to be attached future employment in rural and regional Australia exclusively. And affordable housing/housing and business loans.
Alan B.

Conscription? National service? Ok for my generation and those before! but not the millennials or the Y generation. Bring back high school cadets and conscription. But with the understanding that one volunteer is worth ten pressed men.
Alan B.

The Australian Army is becoming so high tech and reputation of National Service so bad (males only sexism?) that you need recruits meeting all the literacy, language and physical requirements (eg. height) for a 5 year initial sign on.

All this means the author's latest suggestion, like his regular self-serving, name-dropping, grandiose, brain waves, is another non-starter.

Also such Army recruits would need to be Aus citizens who might naturally wish to bring their whole family/clan/native village to dear old Oz. Many of the latter might come from the uneducated, barely English speaking, hunting and gathering Highlands

- and so straight on to the Higher Living Standard Aussie dole queue.

<< Maybe there's a take-away in that for you.
Nobody wants to give their life so that you can have a war with China.
Why don't you sign up yourself, since you're so enthusiastic about it?
Or do you think you're too important?

Better still...

Why don't you grab your rifle and jumpsuit and we'll parachute you in.
- We'll let Xi know you're coming. >>

It was worth skimming the comments ... just to catch this little gem ... well spoken, Armchair Critic ... the perfect response to the gung ho militants out there talking up war with China ... Richard Marles included.

a better comparison would be the British Army,
Aidan,
Well, consider this-how many of us would be here today if it weren't for them-you included ?
If you think the future can somehow be sorted by rattling the past instead of learning from & stop repeating past mistakes then please do so asap because the way we're going isn't really all that good !