Cut and pasted from another site. Comments by 'Albatross':
Albatross said...
Reports elsewhere say that the RAN is looking to recruit 1000 (one thousand!!) trained RN personnel who are excess to requirements in the Old Dart as the RN is gutted to fund the UK's welfare state.
It's a disturbing parallel to what happens in Australian country towns at fruit picking time - hundreds of back packers and newly-arrived immigrants come in to the towns to pick the fruit while hundreds and hundreds of fit and able unemployed young locals sit on their ever widening arses and do nothing more productive than to pick up their dole cheques every fortnight.
What's happening to the ADF/RAN training pipeline? Does the ADF have one (or one that's in any way credible) any more, or was that sacrificed along with much of its effective fighting forces a a cost-saving measure under the 'enlightened' leadership the ADF has 'enjoyed' over the last decade?