Senate Notice Paper Question No 319 Publication Date: 27 June 2002
Hansard: Pages 3040-3

Australian Defence Force: Recruitment

 Senator: Evans

Senator Chris Evans asked the Minister representing the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, upon notice, on 16 May 2002:

  1. For the 2000-01 financial year: (a) how much did it cost per permanent recruit to recruit him or her to the Australian Defence Force (ADF), including the total cost of: (i) advertising on all forms of recruitment (ie, brand, single and tri-service advertisements and marketing exercises), (ii) operating ADF career and call centres, and (iii) physical and psychological assessments pre-enlistment etc; and (b) what were the precise types of costs used to calculate this per person figure. For this or any other part of this question for which particular cost types cannot be calculated, please specify what the cost relates to (ie, what goods, service, salary etc) and why it cannot be calculated.
  2. Can the same figures be provided for each financial year since 1995-96.
  3. For each financial year since, and including, 1998-99, what was the total cost (ie, including lease or building maintenance costs, salaries with on-costs of employees involved in relevant administration etc) to Defence of providing each of the following services: (a) ADF information/career centres; (b) call or inquiry centres; (c) promotional and information material about Defence jobs, other than direct advertising in the media; (d) compulsory screening and assessment procedures for potential ADF entrants; and (e) any other recruitment-related service.
  4. Can a list be provided of: (a) the location of all current ADF career and call centres; and (b) those that have either opened or closed since the 1998-99 financial year.
  5. What is the cost per trainee of training a permanent entrant to the ADF (broken down for each of the services) after each of the first, second, third and fourth years of service for: (a) officer employment groups; and (b) other rank employment groups (for the Navy, sailor employment groups and for the Air Force, airmen and airwomen employment groups).
  6. What is the cost per trainee of training the following specific employment groups: (a) pilot (Navy); (b) weapons electrical aircraft engineering (Navy); (c) operator special vehicle-engineer (Army); (d) air traffic control (Air Force); and (e) communications electronics (Air Force).
  7. With reference to the May 2001 Defence submission to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee which indicates that, in general terms, fixed Return of Service Obligation (ROSO) has been replaced with a ROSO determined proportionally to the training investment: (a) can the figures on which the various ROSO levels are currently based be provided (that is, the calculation of the training investment for each category of entrant to the three services); and (b) can these figures be provided in tabular and formulaic form, if available.
  8. Can information be provided on the length of service of each permanent member of the ADF who separated from each of the services since the 1998-99 financial year, setting out how many in each service left: (a) before completing 12 months of service; (b) between 12 and 24 months of service; (c) between 24 and 48 months of service; and (d) above 4 years of service.

Senator Hill - The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

  1. 2., 3. and 5. The information sought in the honourable senator's question is not readily available. To provide a complete response would require considerable time and resources and, in the interest of efficient utilisation of Defence resources, I am not prepared to authorise the expenditure of resources and effort to provide the information requested.
    1. The location of all Australian Defence Force Recruiting Units (ADFRU), Careers Reference Centres (CRC) and Call Centres is as follows:

      CURRENT ADF CAREER AND CALL CENTRES
      NSW/ACT
      Sydney ADFRU Level 3 Parkview Building/157 Liverpool St SYDNEY NSW
      Sydney CRC Ground Floor, 270 Pitt St SYDNEY NSW
      Canberra CRC GIO Building 250 City Walk CANBERRA ACT
      Newcastle CRC 461 Hunter St NEWCASTLE NSW
      Parramatta CRC 144 Marsden St PARRAMATTA NSW
      Defence Service Centre National Call Centre COOMA NSW
      Manpower Defence Recruiting (MDR) Call Centre Call Centre for MDR CANBERRA ACT
      QLD
      Brisbane ADFRU 288 Edward St BRISBANE QLD
      Brisbane CRC 288 Edward St BRISBANE QLD
      Toowoomba CRC O'Quinn St TOOWOOMBA QLD
      Bundaberg CRC 50 Quay St BUNDABERG QLD
      Townsville CRC 143 Walker St TOWNSVILLE QLD
      Cairns CRC Cnr Swallow Rd & Hargreaves St EDMONTON QLD
      Coolangatta CRC 92-100 Griffith St Centre Olace, COOLANGATTA QLD
      VIC/TAS
      Melbourne ADFRU 2nd Floor 661 Bourke St MELBOURNE VIC
      Albury CRC 517 Spencer St ALBURY NSW
      Hobart CRC Anglesea Barracks Davey St HOBART TAS
      SA/NT
      Adelaide ADFRU 5th Floor 55 Currie St ADELAIDE SA
      Adelaide CRC 26 Flinders St ADELAIDE SA
      Darwin CRC 36 Mitchell St DARWIN NT
      WA
      Perth ADFRU Level 7, 66 St Georges Tce, PERTH WA
      Perth CRC Level 7, 66 St Georges Tce PERTH WA
    2. A list of all ADFRU, CRC and Call Centres, which have opened or closed since 1998-1999, is detailed below. The list is not inclusive of Reserve units throughout Australia, which undertake Reserve recruitment as a result of Army's 'Direct To Unit Recruitment' initiative.

      ADF CAREER AND CALL CENTRES OPENED OR CLOSED SINCE 1998-1999
      Closed since 1998-1999
      Dubbo CRC Closed October 1998
      Dandenong CRC Closed July 2000
      Geelong CRC Closed July 2000
      Launceston CRC Closed September 1999
      Opened since 1998-1999 FY
      Coolangatta CRC CRC function relocated from Lismore March 2002
      Defence Service Centre National Call Centre Cooma Opened October 2000
      MDR Call Centre Call Centre for MDR Opened July 2000
      Relocated Since 1998-1999 FY
      Lismore CRC CRC function relocated to Coolangatta March 2002. Lismore facility still operates as an Army Recruiting Information Centre.
    1. Pilot (Navy) - the estimated direct cost of training a Navy pilot is $2,126,570. The cost includes flying training, pilot conversion (Squirrel helicopter) and pilot operational flight training (Seahawk helicopter). Costs of prerequisite training and academic education, together with student salary and overheads, are not included.
    2. Weapons electrical aircraft engineering (Navy) - the Navy title for this specific employment group is Aircraft Engineering Officer Weapons Electrical. The direct cost per student of the Aircraft Engineering Application Course conducted by Navy is $19,900. Costs of prerequisite training and academic education, together with student salary and overheads, are not included.
    3. The current cost per trainee attending the Operator Special Vehicle-Engineer course is $11,865.
    4. Air traffic control (Air Force) - the direct cost (excluding overheads) for initial employment training as an Air Traffic Controller is $25,952.
    5. Communications electronics (Air Force) - the cost of training an Air Force Communications Technician is $15,343.
  4. Since making the May 2001 submission to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, the Defence People Committee directed a review of the Defence policy on Return of Service Obligation (ROSO). This review has commenced but is not yet complete. Work to date has confirmed that a significant element in the philosophy behind the length of a ROSO period is to obtain an economic return on the taxpayer funded training investment incurred by the ADF. However, consideration has also highlighted that a reasonable economic return is not the sole criteria that a Service Chief should use when making a determination in respect to the length of a particular ROSO. Other factors include the duration of training, the ability of Defence to maintain operational efficiency and career progression in the particular trades and categories that may be affected, 'employer of choice' considerations and the administrative convenience of managing the process for hundreds of different courses. Given these additional non-financial factors, a direct correlation between the financial cost of a course alone and the length of the associated ROSO, is no longer considered the best approach.

    Related to the length of a ROSO is the issue of determining a financial consideration to be applied, in the event that the Service Chief approves separation prior to a ROSO being served. The review in progress is also examining this matter. In addition to the factors cited in determining the length of a ROSO, individual circumstances on a case by case basis will need to be taken into account. Work on developing the precise method of determining the financial consideration is not yet complete.
  5. The following table provides information on permanent ADF members who separated for each Service.
      1999-00 2000-01 2001-02
    (to 31 May 2002)
    Completed
    (years)    		 Service Navy Army Air Force Navy Army Air Force Navy Army Air Force
    Less than 1 year 99 239 77 152 370 93 211 468 102
    1 year 55 107 38 47 127 50 74 121 50
    2 years 56 88 54 58 65 31 42 82 19
    3 years 102 137 68 166 85 57 48 85 19
    4 years 204 427 60 130 340 58 110 138 32
    5 years plus 1187 1808 1363 1210 2003 1826 1129 1664 1015

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