Fiji willing to provide 5000 personnel to Australian Defence Force

RNZ News

a day ago

An Australian Army Dog Handler from the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment with Detection Dog 'Kit' during a live breaching and detection dog serial on exercise Brolga Walk at Townsville Field Training Area, Queensland. 23 March 2024
Photo:
TPR Dana Millington
Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says he would like to see Fijians enlisted in the Australian Defence Force and the country would offer "the whole lot" to help address Australia's personnel shortage.
Rabuka, who is in Australia this week, delivered a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday, covering several themes, including
rebuking China's would-be intentions
of setting up military bases in the region.
While responding to a question from
The Australian
about Australia's plans to potentially recruit Pacific Islanders into the ADF, which is
about 5000 personnel short at the moment
, the prime minister said: "I would like to see it happen."
"Whether Australia does that or not depends on your own policies. We will not push it."
Asked how many personnel Fiji could offer to the ADF, Rabuka replied: "If it's open [to recruiting Fijians]...[we will offer] the whole lot...5000," while noting that Fiji is able to easily fill its quota under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
Sitiveni Rabuka delivered a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra. 2 July 2025
Photo:
Facebook / Fiji Government
Out of the 31,460 workers under the scheme, Fijians make up the second-highest participating country with more than 5300 workers.
Rabuka said there is still a long waiting list of Fijians who want to be part of the PALM scheme, which is Australia's flagship employment programme which allows citizens from nine Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste to gain short-term employment or long-term roles in unskilled, low-skilled and semi-skilled positions.
He acknowledged that the labour mobility scheme is also affecting "our rural ways of life".
"The villages are emptying out into the cities. What we would like to do is to reduce those who are ending up in settlements in the cities and not working, giving way to crime and becoming first victims to the sale of drugs and AIDS and HIV from frequently used or commonly used needles."
Meanwhile, in 2023, a Fijian British Army veteran
welcomed the proposal
to allow Pacific Islanders to enlist in the ADF.
Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles unveiled Canberra's plan to increase the country's defence spending by AU$50 billion in April last year, suggesting that a migration programme would be used to recruit "certain non-Australian citizens" with specialised skills to join the ADF.