Review into the treatment of women at the Australian Defence Force ...

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Chapter 4: Implementation of Review RecommendationsThe Audit was told that the risk is that as the APS reduces, administrative and governance functions willflow back to military personnel. This is suggested as a risk issue to the welfare of undergraduates asstaff are not free to focus on their core duty:If we don’t have the administrative support then the military staff get caught up with having to doprocessing and management, rather than being out there doing the core business of looking afterthe cadets, training and teaching them and their welfare. 24At the completion of the Audit, the outcomes of the Establishment Review had not been provided.Awareness of the ReviewThe Audit noted that many of the staff that were present during the time of the Review had sinceposted out of ADFA. ADFA experiences a turnover of approximately 40% of all military staff eachyear. 25 The Audit noted that some of the staff who joined in 2012 had particular interpretations of therecommendations, for example, that all cadets be assigned a mentor, that RSOs must be drawn fromthe cadet body. For some senior staff interviewed the clear priority for change in 2012 was not theReview but responding to other issues which had emerged. 26Given the rate of staff turnover and new issues which emerge, ongoing and consistent communicationis critical. The COMDT’s efforts have been acknowledged in this regard:The Commandant has been proactive in trying to keep us informed of what’s going on throughverbal forums where he gets us together. I think he tries every month, but in effect once everytwo months. 27However in interviews and focus groups the Audit found that awareness of the purpose and outcomesof the Review was patchy among staff and undergraduates. Some staff had a very clear understanding:As a result of the Review a number of recommendations were made in terms of improving theculture and some of the systemic ways that ADFA did business. Recommendations to basicallyimprove how we do business…to make sure that ADFA is an equitable workplace and thateveryone’s treated fairly, and to test if that’s actually occurring. 28It identified that we had some deficiencies in our organisation mainly regarding how we mighttreat women not just at ADFA but in Defence and the Review promotes and motivates theorganisation to change to overcome those deficiencies. 29I think now, this year, with a fresh bunch of staff coming through I think we’re starting to forgetabout SKYPE and just now starting to realise that we change because there’s a need. 30There are certainly people in the organisation who do appreciate that the reviews occurred,because they have highlighted that we can be a whole lot better. 31There are certainly people on staff who recognise the need for the Review and recognise thatmany, if not most, of the recommendations are warranted and are ways that we can do businessbetter. 32Other staff, however, were not engaged with the changes. When asked about their awareness of theReview and its recommendations the following were typical of the comments received:Off the top of my head, no. It’s been a fair while. It’s one of those things that when we firstmarched in we all got a copy of the report and we were strongly advised to make sure that weread it. But it’s been a while since I have actually picked it up and had a read. 3320
[My awareness is] pretty limited I suppose. I had a flick through the report when it first came outbut obviously that was a while ago now so I’m not overly familiar with it. 34I’ll be honest, I think the day to day has remained….I think the recommendations have beenimplemented, but in terms of day to day I don’t think you could say that somehow we’ve got abig change happening…From my point of view Broderick hasn’t really touched me very much inthe workplace. 35I suppose I would like to see everyone to be treated fairly because if we keep going too far in thedirection we’re possibly going, we’ll be discriminating against the blokes more than the femalesand I don’t think the females like the direction it’s going as well. 36Most undergraduates with whom the Audit spoke were unsure or unclear about the purpose of theReview:I’ve read it online. I’ve got a vague idea from what we were told. I think they gave us a few briefs.I’m not sure, it was random. It was here and there. 37This place is always changing. It’s just if changes are going to occur, it’s just now they say it’sbecause of the Review. 38I had a much better understanding of what it was last year. 39I’ve probably heard in conversation that this is being done because of the Broderick Review, butnot really specifically anything I can remember being spoken of. 40I guess ADFA’s never been one to miss out on a review every now and then. You know it’s justanother review to put on the shelf I guess. You probably won’t find anything drastically new thatthe other reviews hadn’t found already. But you know if it makes people up top happy and helpsthem sleep at night, then great. 41It kind of seems Broderick is just all about women in Defence…I know there’s a proportion ofwomen that have been mistreated and abused or assaulted in Defence but it seems like themajority are just fine the way we are and people outside care more about it than people inside. 42Much was also attributed to the Review that was not the subject of the Review’s considerations, inparticular, alcohol and leave restrictions. 43 Some staff and cadets felt that this contributed to a riskaverseculture and many more limitations on cadet activities:I just feel that the reviews have brought about a culture of...arse covering. I find that there’s somuch more of that going on. There’s been a lot less of ‘let’s go and do something’ and a lot moreof ‘better not, just in case’. I think that it’s stopping the Academy from doing a lot of things thatit could do to create good leaders. I think because everyone’s too scared. We’re losing a lot ofculture and tradition. 44ConclusionThe ADF has ensured that there is appropriate resourcing to support the implementation of therecommendations. Reporting and accountability mechanisms have been established. As will be seenin the following chapters, ADFA and the RIT have vigorously pursued the reform agenda and there hasbeen significant progress on the implementation of the recommendations.However, twelve months after the Review reported, the Audit found that there is uneven knowledge andawareness of the Review’s purpose and intended outcomes among ADFA staff and undergraduates.Audit Report: Review into the Treatment of Women at the Australian Defence Force Academy • 2013 • 21
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Page 8 and 9: A Message from the CommissionerADFA
Page 10 and 11: Chapter 1:Audit ApproachThe Report
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Further InformationAustralian Human
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