Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, , 7:49:38 to 7:52:28
Officials detail the training, visa arrangements, and citizenship pathways for the first cohort of PNG nationals joining the Australian Defense Force.
Topics: Papua New Guinea, ADF
Speakers: Hugh Jeffrey, Natasha Fox, Malcolm Roberts, Unknown Speaker
>> So thank you. That they'll have fasttrack Australian citizenship.
>> Uh no, they'll have normal citizenship in terms of the time it takes to be a permanent residence and then when you apply for a visa um in the 90day period uh in terms of um becoming a citizenship to serve becoming an Australian citizen
understand. Um, are these these people going to be fullyfledged diggers in the ADF? >> Okay.
>> Across the three services.
>> Thank you. Are they going to be mixed across integrated into the services or special units in each service?
>> No, they'll be integrated. Senator,
>> and why do you pick uni graduates or uni students?
>> Uh, because this is a pilot in the first instance. We want to make sure that we're testing to make sure that our systems work. And this is in conjunction with Papa Guini. So we've limited it to three universities because it's up to 50 people for the pilot. So we have made sure with um
>> So you're using the university to to screen.
>> Yes. To make sure because it's against the entry requirements to join the ADF. It is not a separate entry requirement system. It's against the ADF standards.
>> Okay. Um could you go over again how how what what the duration of training will be in Australia for each of these
people? It'll be the same duration in Australia.
>> So when they come here, they'll start training.
>> Yes. They'll do the normal um training that the Australian Defense Force undertakes.
>> Why are we requiring PNG citizens to be recruited into the ADF? Is it part of a mutual agreement?
>> That's right, Senator. It is um it is a uh ambition of both leaders of Australia and Papa New Guinea to ensure that our forces can work more closer together as allies. Part of that ability to work more closer together and indeed to have interoperable and interchangeable forces is is through is to start with personnel and uh um the government uh both governments have therefore asked us to design and develop a process that will allow this to occur in a manner consistent with the domestic and international obligations on of both countries and the constitutional obligations of both countries. And that's the process that General Fox has set out. Our um our our timeline here is that we envisionage this occurring over the long term. So we want to start slow. We want to get this right and we want to make sure that we provide a pathway uh for uh PNG nationals to recruit into the ADF uh that gives them maximum opportunity to succeed. um and that this will stand as a core foundation for the two countries defense systems working together into the future.