(Transcript from World News Radio)
The Australian Defence Force is to increase its efforts to recruit a more culturally and linguistically diverse workforce.
Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert says progress on cultural diversity within the force needs to happen more quickly.
He says, as part of the move, the Defence Force will appoint an imam to its religious advisory committee, which advises it on policies to meet the workforce's spiritual needs.
Amanda Cavill reports.
The imam, who will be part-time, will join one Jewish and five Christian religious leaders who make up the committee.
He will serve in a policy-advisory role but will not provide pastoral care as Christian chaplains do in the Defence Force.
Mr Robert says he is eager for an imam to join the committee to encourage more Muslims to sign up.
"There is no impediment to service based on religion, and our chaplaincy and religious advisory committees to the Services are designed to provide such support where required. To this end, I've asked my department to move as quickly as possible to identify a part-time Islamic imam to join the ADF's Religious Advisory Committee to ensure those 96 ADF members of an Islamic faith have appropriate representation."
About 5.7 per cent of the Defence Force's 57-thousand-member permanent force identify as coming from a non-English speaking background.
About 5.4 per cent were born overseas in countries other than New Zealand, Britain, Canada and the United States.
Stuart Robert says the ethnic composition of the Defence Force does not reflect the ethnic diversity of the general Australian population.
Mr Robert says recruiters recognise having more culturally and linguistically diverse members will enhance the Defence Force's capabilities on and off the battlefield.
"It is born out of the stark reality that combat power will be enhanced by widening the national recruitment pool and tapping into the tremendous latent resources that a culturally and linguistically diverse workforce brings to Defence. In many ways, this is not dissimilar from ensuring our capability edge through investing in cutting-edge equipment or maintaining exceptional training standards."
As part of the initiative, a dedicated recruitment strategy will target sections of the community from which soldiers, sailors and airmen and women are not typically drawn.
Mr Robert says, to ensure Australia's security in the Asia-Pacific, Defence must have people with sufficient linguistic and cultural literacy to engage effectively with the region.
The Opposition's parliamentary secretary for defence, Gai Brodtmann, says she welcomes the Government's initiative.
Ms Brodtmann says such recruitment can be accomplished by appealing to parents, community leaders or teachers of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
"It is important that Defence engages a culturally diverse workforce that not only represents the community in which its personnel live and serve but that draws from the full breadth of skills available. Engaging with the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse community will not only support Defence's future capability through recruitment but will assist the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse community to embrace Defence as a positive and integral part of Australian life."
But Ms Brodtmann says making significant progress will take time.
And she says it will not be easy.
"I believe a key factor in the encouraging results we're seeing in regards to having more women and Indigenous Australians in our Defence Force has been the commitment by the ADF's leadership to this task. It has been particularly pleasing to see the Chief of Army David Morrison's dedication to improving the gender balance within Army. And Lieutenant General Morrison set clear KPIs* for the army to attract more women, and the gender balance is improving."
Both the Government and Opposition say the Defence Force must further diversify and better reflect the society it serves and represents to be competitive.
