I think publicity around Ben Roberts-Smith might put some people off. Apart from that in a tight labour market young people researching the defence force lifestyle might decide it's not for them when you consider how many people reportedly leave the service broken, feeling unsupported and have difficulty transitioning to civvie life. Better pay as influencers on social media or FIFO workers where you get to go home regularly rather than being moved around the country to various bases getting shouted at. If Australia was under threat from imminent attack then perhaps more people would join up. At the moment those looking for combat representing Australia would be fighting other peoples wars.
Some say we should devise some sort of conscription scheme so that we would have a body of reservists to call on should we be attacked like Israel does. Others say that young Aussies see themselves as globalists travelling the world backpacking rather than patriots who wear Aussie flag capes with the Union Jack in the corner. Also I have read that when you apply to join it can take ages for the induction process to proceed with medicals, interviews and so on taking months which can exceed the attention span of many of this generation.
