The community consultation process also shows that there is strong support for the Government to treat employment in the services as a unique vocation or way of life, not just another job. Government should never forget that when occasion demands, the Department of Defence it is required to place its people in the face of organised human agencies that are determined to kill them. This imposes heavy responsibilities on the Government. Accordingly, governments need to take defence far more seriously than they do. In principle, the choices that face us are simple.
Defence is expensive and growing more so by the year.
If we want to spend the same amount on defence as we have in the recent past, we will have to accept substantially reduced capability and the permanent loss of key military skills. If we want to do what we need to do, we will have to spend a great deal more. Small budgetary increments will not do the trick. If the Government really wants the forthcoming white paper to be a watershed in Australian thinking about defence, it will make sure that the paper defines what it wants the ADF to be able to do. The defence budget would then be derived analytically from the scope and scale of the defence task.