Following the revelations Defence will not process applications from males for front-line combat roles for at least 12 months that appeared on this website and the front page of the Daily Telegraph today, understandably, the Defence Minister, Marise Payne, went into damage control.

This press release was issued:

And the obligatory tweets were sent:

All roles in the ADF are open for men and women to apply #YourADF — DefenceAustralia (@DeptDefence) August 10, 2017

There are no Australian Defence Force employment categories which are open exclusively to women https://t.co/GzYREr5gr8 — DefenceAustralia (@DeptDefence) August 10, 2017

However, these were nothing more than a smokescreen that billowed forth from a Russell Offices complex in Canberra intent on obfuscating itself out of this mess.

It is true that all roles in the ADF are open to males and females. It is true that males can apply for any of them.

But that is not the issue.

It is not in dispute that males are applying for these roles. All of them. That happens every day. It’s what happens next that is the problem.

Males are not having their applications processed. And Defence cunningly, cleverly and craftily crept away from dealing with that issue at all.

But if you carefully read the press release above you will see the sleight of hand. Between the first and second line, there is a complete change of tack.

The first line is about the jobs males can apply for. All of them.

And the next line is all about the jobs females get.

After that there’s a bunch of PC bunkum about diversity and statistics that fails to disguise the fact that Defence has admitted it has quotas for females.

And that also necessarily means discrimination against males.

Hence the spreadsheet I received this week named ‘Weekly Target Priorities – 7 Aug 17’ and authored by ‘Defence Force Recruiting’. Defence has not denied it exists or that it clearly shows all front-line combat roles in the Army are closed to males for at least 12 months but are open to females now.

Screen shots of the appropriate cells in the spreadsheet are shown below:

Because you’re a bright bunch, I’ll let you work out what out the (F) stands for. But you can see the meaning of the colour codes below:

After today’s events, I can tell you that angry, frustrated, annoyed and concerned fighting men of Australia are coming out of the wood works. They’ve had enough.

And now I’ve got stories to chase for the next ten years.

Stay tuned…