With Australia's population of Australia expected to rise just three million in the next 50 years defence chiefs will be using qualified staff regardless of gender, race or religion to protect our nation's shores, Chief of Defence, ADML Chris Barrie said.

ADML Barrie's remarks came at an Integration of Women into the Australian Defence Force seminar at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

"When combined with the current social expectations in our community that women will be able to make genuine choices about their roles and the range of contributions they want to make, as well as the cold hard realities of the demographics of our modern Australian society, then the integration of women into our ADF is a very important priority," ADML Barrie said.

He said the defence force had to overcome the concept of women "coming home in body bags."

"As I look forward into the future, let's say to the year 2050, it is still my belief that the scarcest resource in our country will be our people. I think the acceptable prediction right now is that our population in the year 2050 will be 22 million people. (Australia currently has just under 19 million)

"So the only way we can maximise our combat capability is to rely on what we now call the 'knowledge edge'-and the knowledge edge comes directly from the skills and intellect of the people in our organisation."

"Women are integral to our aim of retaining high quality people and the ADF does not seek to become in any way divorced, or different or separate from the social, economic, organisational and industrial trends occurring in this country."

He said to deny women full participation in defence would be to deny both the ADF and the community of their very considerable talents.

ADML Barrie praised the women who have already seen action, including the nurses who treated the aftermath of massacres in Rwanda, the SAS medical officer who deployed to the Gulf last year and the women sailors who fought the fire in WESTRALIA.

"Today the playing field has been levelled even more dramatically in a traditionally male-dominated defence force. Since 1992, 85 per cent of all employment categories have been open to women."

ADML Barrie said other countries and Australian organisations are watching what the ADF does.

By Graham Davis