Sad news this week with the passing of much-respected veteran Liberal politician Greg Cornwell, former Speaker of the ACT Legislative Assembly. (I’ll write a longer obituary at another time.)

I was also privileged to attend Opposition Leader Leanne Castley’s budget reply speech, which I thought was the best since Kate Carnell’s alternate budget speech in 1994. Provided Leanne and her team keep plugging away, they may yet prove successful in 2028.

The fact that the two best budget reply speeches were delivered by Liberal women says something about encouraging more women to stand for the conservative side of politics in Australia. Women are often a lot better than men in politics.

However, there is one area where, no matter how talented women are, they can’t compete with men: the seriously physical military tasks that members of the arms corps of the Australian Army, in particular, have to perform.

Female members of the ADF can fly planes and command ships, but they are not as effective at digging weapon pits, carrying heavy loads, or performing many of the tasks that involve upper-body strength. To pretend otherwise is to place our combat troops in danger. As long as there is a high common standard, for example, the one our special forces have to meet, then there is no problem (as almost certainly only men will be able to meet it due to their physical attributes). However, if the standard is reduced to cater for some misguided policy of ” inclusion ” or “diversity”, then inevitably people will be killed or wounded needlessly as a result. To say otherwise goes against nature. Men are different from women. It doesn’t make women lesser soldiers, just soldiers with a different skill set.

I am reminded of the officer cadet Jan Sinclair, the daughter of Rear Admiral Sinclair, former Governor of NSW and the first naval officer to review the passing out parade at OCTU Bardia Barracks in 1986, when his daughter graduated with the Sword of Honour. Jan was one of the officer cadets I was honoured to instruct, and she was a fine soldier and leader, with more talent and ability than most of the males. However, despite her excellence, she did not have the upper body strength to do those essential infantry tasks (like digging a weapon pit) that only a male, however less able in tactical or leadership ability, could do.

For the ADF to drop its standards to comply with some misguided directive in the name of diversity, inclusion, and political correctness is potentially dangerous, as it could put women in the terrible situation of having to drag a 100-kilogram wounded male comrade out of a battle zone. If they can’t, he dies, and most likely, so do they.

Common sense needs to be applied here, and I’m pleased to see the US military getting back to basics on this. It’s also interesting to note that, with their more gung-ho recruiting stance, the number of recruits has increased dramatically. Potential members of the ADF join the military to defend their country out of a sense of patriotism as much as anything else. Diversity and inclusion concerns should be right down the list of requirements.