CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's military is considering scrapping its tough anti-drugs policy in order to attract more recruits to the armed forces.

Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said he was considering scrapping the rule, saying a person's character and ability should be the main tests for new defense recruits.

Under current rules, a person is automatically rejected as a recruit if they admit to having taken illegal drugs. Nelson said that meant someone who lied about drug use could be accepted, while an honest person would be rejected.

"I can say no to that (question) myself, but the reality is about 40-45 percent of the adult population have (tried drugs)," Nelson told a defense conference on Tuesday.

In his first major speech since he became defense minister in January, Nelson said he had taken responsibility for recruitment as Australia's defense forces struggle to meet recruiting targets in Australia's tight labor market.

In December, the government announced plans to expand the size of the army by about 1,500 over 10 years, from its current 42,000 soldiers, including 16,800 reservists.

But with Australia's unemployment rate at near 30-year lows, the defense forces regularly fail to meet recruiting targets, particularly in some specialist areas.

Nelson, who was education minister before taking on defense, blamed school teachers for a culture where school leavers did not see the value of a defense career.

"Unfortunately there is a minority of those in the classroom teaching children that bring pejorative views to the task, not just in relation to defense but in relation to non-university based careers," he said.

Source: www.yahoo.com

Nelson, who was education minister before taking on defense, blamed school teachers for a culture where school leavers did not see the value of a defense career.

"Unfortunately there is a minority of those in the classroom teaching children that bring pejorative views to the task, not just in relation to defense but in relation to non-university based careers," he said.

Spose they gotta get a few more peeps over for Iran....

OZ's defense policy in an 'under attack' situation is to fall back and put the desert between them and their adversaries... did some mapping for Australian Defense Force back in the day...

Hahahaha goddamned teachers doing there job, what are they thinking to inspire kids to further themselves instead of sacrificing themselves for the greater good of buissness men/women in Australia hahahaha! Na bro, Asian countries. Unfortunatly unlike Risk Australia is undefendable. Abit like NZ, lack of population to coastline ratio and shit. They can't even stop illegal fishing let alone a fucking invasion!

The Aussies have only a small force of regulars in Iraq ( though 'they' ...well, Howard has just extended thier tour, they were suposed to be back soon), and if they send combat troops to countries it is usually( again like NZ hahaha) SAS. Their regulars job is guarding Japanese engineers. They are getting worried as the Brits are pulling out they have no close air support, as the Brits do all they're chopper work.

I guess if they send troops to a 'incident' in Iran it'll be SAS and or Naval.
The Aussies really still make a stink over Vietnam ( fair enough) and their casulties there, so I'd imagine the public would go fucking ape shit if they sent a large amount of regular forces their.....but then they might believe the b-s and think that it is justified, as Howard does have his 10 year strangle hold on the country pretty tight.
The defence minister has even publically made statements about the reintroduction of the draft.