New recruits entering the Australian Defence Force (ADF) will be required to remain "on the books" for ten years after leaving the military.
The ADF has doubled the "commitment period" required of all personnel from five years to ten, in an effort to grow the pool of people it can call upon in a crisis.
The requirement to remain in Australia's reserve forces has been in place for anyone entering the ADF since 2016.
The longer time frame will automatically apply to recruits from October 1, while existing personnel will be able to opt-in to ten years.
The commitment only requires members to stay at "service category two" โ essentially an unpaid contingency reserve, with no service, training or other obligations other than a duty to respond if called up.
Defence has been looking for ways to lift the number of reserve personnel for some time and a 2024 review of reserves recommended making this change after warning the number who could be called upon was too low.
It estimated that the change would double the ADF's "contingent reserve" โ people who are out of active service but could be called upon in a crisis โ to close to 20,000 within five years.
There is also a sense within Defence that some former personnel feel the five year window is too short and they want the option to easily return to service for longer โ even if they have been inactive for years.
Asked about the change, Defence Minister Richard Marles pointed to recent ADF recruitment figures as a positive sign for the military.
"We manage recruitment very carefully," he said.
"We are seeing recruitment rates which we haven't seen for a very long period of time, so we are actually investing in our people, making the critical decisions."
Last week, the ADF announced its permanent headcount had reached more than 64,000 โ a 25-year high.
The 2024 Strategic Review of the Australian Defence Force Reserves pointed out the enormous cost of training full-time military personnel.
It estimated the average cost of training a soldier in their first 12 months is $173,000, and suggested it "rises exponentially" as they build experience and new technical skills.
The review argued it makes economic sense for the ADF to try and maintain connection with a highly trained potential workforce in the years after they leave service.
Recent figures suggest most former ADF personnel leaving service actually opt to initially join the reserves at a higher "service category", meaning they maintain training and some active service.
But it pointed out that there are thousands of former ADF members leaving service each year and joining the contingency reserve that it has almost no visibility of, and could be using better.
The ADF has also been on a years-long campaign to lift its recruitment levels, missing its permanent recruitment target in 2024-25 by 23 per cent.
Jennifer Parker, a former naval officer and adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia, said she does not think the increased service obligations will hinder recruitment.
"I don't think that an obligation for inactive reserves really will factor into the minds of young people joining Defence when you weigh up the pros and cons and the incentives," she said.
"So I don't think it will impact recruitment at all."
Ms Parker argues doubling the service commitment makes sense as it grows the pool of people that the ADF can call upon in a time of conflict or crisis.
But she points out those people will not necessarily have the current skill sets or knowledge to be as useful as they could be.
"Depending on what their category is and what their skill set was when they served, those skill sets require currency and training to be able to be used," she said.
"So it's more a pool of people, as opposed to people with specific current skill sets. And there is a certain benefit in that.
"But I do think they are perhaps tinkering around the edges a little bit. A more detailed strategic review of the reserves is required to understand what the functions are that we require from the reserve force."
As of March 2024, the total number of people in the ADF Reserve was 41,717 โ including 9,406 people in the unpaid service category two.
The only time the ADF's reserves have been formally called out was in January 2020 to respond to the Black Summer bushfires.
The 2024 reserve review noted that outside of periods of conscription, Australia's level of reserves has remained fairly steady for decades, even as the broader population has grown.
And it argued that the reserve has "no coherent design" and a role that is "not clearly defined".
While the army takes a large number of recruits directly into its reserve, both the air force and Navy Reserve is made up almost entirely of former full-time personnel.
The review set a modest target for the ADF of recruiting another 1,000 reserve personnel by 2030 and recommended some administrative changes.
Jennifer Parker argues there is a case for more substantial change โ to build an ADF Reserve that is more capable, and more ready to serve if called upon.
"There needs to be a fundamental review that looks at what we want the reserves to do practically," she said.
"You would change the structure of the reserves. You would start recruiting more navy and air force reservists off the street, you'd start upskilling them, and you would have (training) requirements."
While those changes wouldn't affect the current pool of inactive reserves, she said until there was a more structural change, defence is "playing around the edges".
