Army and Defence chiefs need to explain why a civil servant with limited or no combat experience was given a war zone command
by Ganesh Sahathevan
This is beginning to look like the Mona Shindy affair ie an appointment made to further the vice-regal ambition of army chiefs looking to life after active duty.
This is beginning to look like the Mona Shindy affair ie an appointment made to further the vice-regal ambition of army chiefs looking to life after active duty.
The article below from The Australian makes clear that Brigadier Kathryn Campbell is essentially a desk bound Canberra civil servant. Her combat experience appears limited if not non-existent and yet she was given a war zone command.
It does seem as if army chiefs who have themselves been desk bound for many years , waging political battles in Canberra,fighting tooth and nail for that next appointment , can no longer tell what is required to fight a war.
As for transferable skills-Ms Campbell has been found by the Auditor General incapable of managing peace time tasks:
Nearly a quarter of the 57 million phone calls made to Centrelink last year went unanswered, according to a new report by the Australian National Audit Office.
About 13.7 million calls did not even make it to the point of being put on hold, after they were blocked or received a "busy signal".
Another 13 million of the calls that did manage to get into the system were "abandoned", with the callers getting tired of waiting to speak to an operator, the Audit of the Department of Human Service's "Smart Centre" system found.
Kathryn Campbell: from tough desk job to calling shots in Mid East
Brigadier Kathryn Campbell is given a tour of the Afghan Airforce at Kabul air base by Group Captain Terry Deeth. Picture: Andrew Hetherington
- The Australian
One of Australia’s most senior public servants who runs the Department of Human Services, including Centrelink’s massive operations, has been serving for three months as second in command of Australia’s forces in the Middle East.
Kathryn Campbell is a brigadier in the Army Reserve and was picked for the key operational role by Army Chief Angus Campbell.
She’s the deputy commander of Joint Task Force 633, which covers Australian forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Brigadier Campbell, who took leave without pay from the department for three months, told The Australian from Kabul that as a public servant, she could bring a different way of thinking to the Australian Defence Force while learning a lot from the military to make her a better bureaucrat.
She now commands the Army Reserve 5th Brigade, the first woman to command a brigade in the Australian Army.
Brigadier Campbell attended the recent graduation of a class from the Afghan Army’s officer academy, which included seven proud young women.
“Having women in the Australian Army they can see in senior positions is very promising,” she said.
Iraqi soldiers asked her if she was a mother as well as a one-star general.
“I said yes I was,’’ Brigadier Campbell said.
“They were a bit worried about where the children were and I said they were safely in Australia with their father.’’
The Iraqis were very entertained by that.
“They were a bit confused about how you could be a woman and a one-star general but it’s good for us to provide examples.”
Lieutenant General Campbell, no relation, said Brigadier Campbell was both a distinguished public servant and a very capable leader and commander in the ADF.
“She’s done a superb job over there,” he said.
In her day job, Brigadier Campbell’s department has 35,000 staff in 400 locations delivering Centrelink services, Medicare and child support.
“It’s a very challenging role and we touch the lives of most Australians,’’ she said.
In the Middle East, Australia’s forces included many women at different stages of their lives and careers, including young women on their first deployment and mothers who were balancing having children at home, she said.
Their presence brings home to governments and to local defence forces that women can play key roles in their national security organisations.
Brigadier Campbell said her parallel careers had complemented each other.
“I’ve found it very useful in my public service career to have that leadership and command training that the military provides, to always see people as a key determinant of achieving objectives,’’ she said.
“My military experience gave me at a very young age a focus on leadership and working with people and decision-making that I may not have got from my public service career.
“To provide leadership to the department, I think the skills I learned in the military have been incredibly important.
“Some public servants might say I’m a bit too directive because I’m in the army. Military people might say I’m a bit too consultative because I’m in the public service.
“I think I’m somewhere in the middle.”
Kathryn Campbell: from tough desk job to calling shots in Mid East
Brigadier Kathryn Campbell is given a tour of the Afghan Airforce at Kabul air base by Group Captain Terry Deeth. Picture: Andrew Hetherington
One of Australia’s most senior public servants who runs the Department of Human Services, including Centrelink’s massive operations, has been serving for three months as second in command of Australia’s forces in the Middle East.
Kathryn Campbell is a brigadier in the Army Reserve and was picked for the key operational role by Army Chief Angus Campbell.
She’s the deputy commander of Joint Task Force 633, which covers Australian forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Brigadier Campbell, who took leave without pay from the department for three months, told The Australian from Kabul that as a public servant, she could bring a different way of thinking to the Australian Defence Force while learning a lot from the military to make her a better bureaucrat.
She now commands the Army Reserve 5th Brigade, the first woman to command a brigade in the Australian Army.
Brigadier Campbell attended the recent graduation of a class from the Afghan Army’s officer academy, which included seven proud young women.
“Having women in the Australian Army they can see in senior positions is very promising,” she said.
Iraqi soldiers asked her if she was a mother as well as a one-star general.
“I said yes I was,’’ Brigadier Campbell said.
“They were a bit worried about where the children were and I said they were safely in Australia with their father.’’
The Iraqis were very entertained by that.
“They were a bit confused about how you could be a woman and a one-star general but it’s good for us to provide examples.”
Lieutenant General Campbell, no relation, said Brigadier Campbell was both a distinguished public servant and a very capable leader and commander in the ADF.
“She’s done a superb job over there,” he said.
In her day job, Brigadier Campbell’s department has 35,000 staff in 400 locations delivering Centrelink services, Medicare and child support.
“It’s a very challenging role and we touch the lives of most Australians,’’ she said.
In the Middle East, Australia’s forces included many women at different stages of their lives and careers, including young women on their first deployment and mothers who were balancing having children at home, she said.
Their presence brings home to governments and to local defence forces that women can play key roles in their national security organisations.
Brigadier Campbell said her parallel careers had complemented each other.
“I’ve found it very useful in my public service career to have that leadership and command training that the military provides, to always see people as a key determinant of achieving objectives,’’ she said.
“My military experience gave me at a very young age a focus on leadership and working with people and decision-making that I may not have got from my public service career.
“To provide leadership to the department, I think the skills I learned in the military have been incredibly important.
“Some public servants might say I’m a bit too directive because I’m in the army. Military people might say I’m a bit too consultative because I’m in the public service.
“I think I’m somewhere in the middle.”
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