Morale of our troops in retreat as scandals and cuts take toll
ONE in five troops are no longer proud to say they are in the Australian Defence Force, with a series of sex scandals, budgetary cuts and border-protection challenges contributing to a crisis of confidence among the nation’s military personnel.
Ahead of Australia’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, internal surveys conducted by the Defence Department revealed the immense task of maintaining high morale among army, air force and navy personnel, while at the same time endeavouring to lift standards and improve readiness for future assignments.
The 2013 survey results, obtained by The Weekend Australian, show a series of sudden falls in key areas, with less than half of those surveyed (44.9 per cent) feeling valued by Defence for the work they do.
Overall job satisfaction has dropped to 61.4 per cent – down from 70.6 per cent in 2009 when Defence introduced the measure – while there is also emerging negativity in relation to career development, promotions and confidence in merit-based decision-making, along with the amount of fairness and integrity in the ADF.
Army personnel had the lowest job satisfaction across the services (59.5 per cent) and liked the work they did in their current position the least (63.2 per cent).
Perhaps the most telling result is in relation to pride in the service. When personnel were asked whether they were proud to tell others that they were in the ADF, only 80.1 per cent agreed – compared with 86.7 per cent two years earlier. That is the lowest level since 2006, when it was 78.7 per cent, and represents the biggest single-year fall in available records for that category.
The rate of pride varied across the services – 79.2 per cent in the army and navy, and 82.1 per cent in the air force – with the biggest fall occurring in the army, which previously rated at 86 per cent.
When the public servants in the Defence Department were asked the same question, they returned a rate of just 66.4 per cent, down from 74.6 per cent a year before, perhaps reflecting tension over the reform process pursued by the former Labor government.
None of the Defence leadership team would discuss the findings with The Weekend Australian this week and a departmental spokesman said yesterday the survey results were part of “ongoing workforce monitoring”.
The spokesman, in a statement, did not respond to questions about whether the results were concerning, or what they might reflect, but insisted “they cannot, and should not, be viewed in isolation”.
“Where clear long-term trends are identified, Defence will respond by modifying workforce policies and practices or by implementing initiatives tailored to address a specific need,” the spokesman said, referring to previous retention bonuses and back-to-back posting cycles in specific regions.
Australia Defence Association spokesman Neil James levelled much of the blame for the results at former defence minister Stephen Smith, whom he described as one of the worst MPs to ever hold the portfolio and “incredibly unpopular” across the ranks and the department.
Mr James said the decision to scrap the defence white paper had shattered many public servants and bureaucrats after the work they had put in. But he said there would likely be a multitude of reasons for the results, and different sentiments expressed among the officers and senior ranks – who were better informed about what was happening in the ADF and the department – compared with the “Diggers”.
“The substantial cuts to Defence over the past four years in part mean that the training levels have dropped and when your ability to train drops, your job satisfaction drops,” Mr James said.
“It may also be affected by the winding-down of the war in Afghanistan, as without the prospect of operational activity there can be an affect on morale.”
In terms of the sex scandals and resulting reviews, Mr James suggested Defence personnel would have been more unhappy about the media coverage and public commentary than the actual inquiries and resulting reforms.
“A lot of the media coverage … has been sensational and inaccurate and has just tended to make people angry,” he said. “The whole media coverage of the so-called sexism bit caused a considerable loss of morale.”
The survey results show satisfaction with salary, resources and workload barely changed across the ADF last year.
However, faith in leadership fluctuated, with personnel appearing to show more disappointment in their colleagues and immediate superiors than with the top brass.
Mr James said the Afghanistan draw-down may prompt “the best people” to leave the service, as occurred after the similarly protracted Vietnam War. “There doesn’t appear to be much operational activity on the horizon, at least in the short to medium term,” he said.
“It is very difficult to deal with, especially because this is coinciding with substantial cuts to the funds available for training.”
The survey found more than a quarter of ADF members (25.4 per cent) were actively looking to leave Defence, which was only slightly higher than 2012 levels. When asked whether they could easily find employment outside the ADF, 62.7 per cent said they could – down from 65 per cent.
The proportion who felt they had no personal control over their career fell from 41 per cent to 35.5 per cent.
The rolling separation rate as at October 31 last year was 9.7 per cent, which the Defence spokesman blamed on a variety of internal and external factors.
The separation rate was highest, at 12.2 per cent, in the army, which at June 30, 2010, had a separation rate of 7.4 per cent, perhaps reflecting a desire to be involved in operational activity.
“The current ADF separation rate is at the 10-year average level while there has been a slight increase in the numbers of personnel recruited into the ADF over the past 12 months, resulting in the relatively stable personnel numbers,” the spokesman said.
The exit survey found the main reasons for leaving the ADF were to make a career change while young, spend more time with family and a loss of job satisfaction.
