Islamic State threat not confined to Middle East, ADF chief warns
The threat posed by Islamic State is not just confined to the Middle East, the new Chief of the Australian Defence Force has warned.
Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin was announced as Australia's new Defence chief by the Prime Minister Tony Abbott in April.
He spoke to 7.30 ACT about what has changed in the past six months, due largely to the downing of MH17 and the rise of Islamic State.
"If someone had said to me in the early couple of days at July that we would have forces in the Netherlands and the Ukraine, in support of the AFP, after a criminal act occurred, I would have said 'what were you thinking?'" he said.
"But obviously we showed the ability to respond quite quickly to that criminal act."
'We'll be in it as long as required'
Air Chief Marshal Binskin is now preparing for the looming campaign in the Middle East.
"You can see that this isn't a threat that is just confined to the Middle East," he told 7.30 ACT.
"We're seeing what happened over the last couple of weeks with the raising of the national terror alert level in Australia, which was days before the announcement that we were going to deploy."
Air Chief Marshal Binskin refused to be drawn on concerns the conflict might last for decades.
"I think there will always be an end point. The Prime Minister said many, many months. For me, we're looking to be in it as long as required to the job, but not a day longer," he said.
"This will take a while to bring back under control and to ultimately destroy ISIL."
'It was confronting'
Air Chief Marshal Binskin also has to deal with the heavily scrutinised culture of the ADF, and the well-being of its members.
On his first day in the top job, a serviceman in Afghanistan took his own life.
"It was confronting, there wasn't a chance to settle in," he said.
"We were at the farewell for General Hurley in fact with the Governor-General when the news came through.
"It was, like all deaths that we have of our servicemen or women, it's a hard one to take."
He said mental health issues might not become apparent for decades.
"We just always have to be aware of it, not only do we look after the health and welfare of our people when they're in the service, we've got a lot closer links now with veterans affairs.
"So that when people transition out of defence, into veterans affairs care, that they're not dropped."
Air Chief Marshal Binskin has also admitted long term cultural change in the ADF is needed, after several high profile sexual assault cases.
"Long term reform takes a long time, and generational change takes a generation," he told 7.30 ACT.
"You can try and accelerate it and you can keep your eye on it but it does take time to do.
"I've seen the improvements. I go and have lunch over at ADFA on regular occasions and I sit with the cadets and I talk to them about what they find in ADFA and how they feel about it, so I get a good feel for over there."
