The real battle is far from the battlefield

The Australian Defence Force is by far the most complex organisation in the country. It doesn't just provide armed force. It does everything from social work and brass-band music to rocket science and signals intelligence. To do all this, Defence employs more people than any other organisation in the country except Coles-Myer. But unlike Coles-Myer, many of Defence's people are doing the most dangerous and stressful jobs in Australia. No wonder things are always going wrong. Doing so many difficult and dangerous things, and so many different things, makes Defence inherently hard to manage. There will always be a stream of mistakes and misfortunes, many of them distressing because they touch deeply the lives of service people and their families.