Kapooka – A reader’s questions

This morning, I got some great questions from a reader – questions I haven’t addressed yet. I could have just responded to his comments, but instead I thought I’d put it all down in a post to make the information easier for my readers to find. So here’s the questions:

Hey there,
I was wondering if you could help me understand what Kapooka has to offer in a little more detail.

– I am applying for ‘Rifleman’ within the army. I am aware that I may have to wait 6 – 12 months before i receive a letter of offer but does Kapooka gaurantee me a job within the ADF? or is it just something all applicants must do?

– If Kapooka doesn’t gaurantee me employment however, I succeed, does only a select few get selected for Initial Employment Training?

– If succesfull in gaining employment with the ADF will i have a choice of where I will be posted to? For example if I request Brisbane will I have the opportunity to wait until positions in that location are available or must I be assigned to a unit straight away?

– Finally, is there any age discrimination to gain employment in a role of a Rifleman? I’m 17yrs old but I am very physically capable. So in plain words… Any restrictions?

Some good stuff there. I’ve broken the questions down and answered them individually below.

– I am applying for ‘Rifleman’ within the army. I am aware that I may have to wait 6 – 12 months before i receive a letter of offer but does Kapooka gaurantee me a job within the ADF? or is it just something all applicants must do?

This question reminded me of another recent concern I received from a reader. Kapooka is TRAINING, it’s not an ASSESSMENT. This means that you will be taught how to be an Australian Soldier at Kapooka – not tested to see if you already have the knowledge. If you pass the training at Kapooka, Yes, you are guaranteed employment in the Australian Army.

– If Kapooka doesn’t gaurantee me employment however, I succeed, does only a select few get selected for Initial Employment Training?

Even though I’ve answered the first part of this question above, I wanted to address the issue of IETs. At the completion of Kapooka, you’re trained in the basics of being a “soldier”, but not in a “trade”. So everyone that gets through Kapooka has to then go to an IET course. The issue is that your IET course may not be ready for you as soon as you finish Kapooka. I talk about that specific issue in my post: What happens after Kapooka?

– If succesfull in gaining employment with the ADF will i have a choice of where I will be posted to? For example if I request Brisbane will I have the opportunity to wait until positions in that location are available or must I be assigned to a unit straight away?

Yes and No. From your IET course, your Corps will decide where they want you to go first and you’ll get very little say in that decision. During your first posting, you’ll be asked to provide your “posting preferences” to your Career Manager – the guy in Canberra who manages the back end of your career. You can list THREE units, cities or jobs that you want and ONE that you don’t want. Your Career Manager will take your choices into account when deciding where to post you, but remember that the needs of the Army ALWAYS come first. If you ask for Brisbane, but 1 RAR in Townsville is desperately short of soldiers, you’ll probably get 1 RAR.

– Finally, is there any age discrimination to gain employment in a role of a Rifleman? I’m 17yrs old but I am very physically capable. So in plain words… Any restrictions?

There’s no minimum age to join as a Rifleman. It’s one of the few roles in the Army that ANYONE can be assigned to. In fact, if you don’t perform well at Kapooka, you should expect to be assigned to Rifleman. I thought that defence jobs.gov.au would have info about the specific physical requirements for Rifleman, but let’s face it, that web site is really quite poor.

The physical requirements are much higher than Kapooka. Kapooka will provide a certain level of fitness, but if you’re already quite fit, you might not get that much out of it. Heading off the Singleton for your Rifleman IET course will REALLY put you through your paces. People who were a lot less fit than you managed to become successful Rifleman, so you shouldn’t have any problems at all.

Bulls**t prison sentences

(2 March 2013)

When I woke up this morning, I was flabbergasted. Weird word, but nothing else really describes my emotional state when I read THIS news article about a Sydney woman killed by a P-Plater. I always thought our justice system was supposed to represent the views of society. After all, isn’t “society” the group who determine what is considered right and wrong? Apparently not.

I’m going to start by mentioning an article from 2012 about a man named Michael Gillard. Michael lived in Canberra and used to look after some teenage girls from time to time, although I don’t know anything about his relationship to the girls. Anyway, it seems that the older girl took a liking to Michael, so on a few occasions – when she was 16 – they had consensual sex.

There’s no real polite way to put this, but one day the girl gave him oral, while her 13 year old sister was in the same room. There’s no mention of what shape the room was, or whether the sister actually saw – or was aware – of what was going on. Michael was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison.

Fair enough, some might say. But Michael’s crime wasn’t rape. He was convicted of “betraying the girl’s trust” while in a position of authority. That might sound bad, but thousands of parents do that every day in Australia, in my opinion.

So back to today’s story. A 22 year old P plater, on a suspended licence, who blew .106, sped through a roundabout, lost control of his V8 and killed an innocent woman. Steven Michael O’Donnell, who obviously already had some kind of driving conviction, since his licence was already suspended, drank SO heavily the night before, that he was still MORE THAN DOUBLE the “open licence” blood alcohol limit in Australia when he got in his car the next morning. And just so you know, the New South Wales P Plate blood alcohol limit is 0.00. That’s ZERO

I’ve been that drunk before, and let me tell you, there’s no “I reckon I’ll be fine to drive” about it. I could barely speak and I could barely walk. What the f**k is a person doing getting into a car in that condition?

Anyway, Steven O’Donnell pled guilty to “dangerous driving occasioning death while under the influence”. So he admitted that he was drunk and that he was responsible for killing someone with his car. His sentence? Maximum of 3.5 years in prison and a 3 year driving ban. They say he’ll be out in 1 year, 9 months.

What the f**k were you thinking, Judge Chris Craigie? As a member of society, this sentence DOES NOT reflect my views, and probably the majority of the rest of Australia’s. And well done you, banning him from driving for 3 years. You’re awesome. You really showed him, didn’t you! I’ll bet you $1,000 at 100-to-1 odds, that he couldn’t give a rat’s arse about the ban. How many days after he gets out of prison will it take before he’s behind the wheel again? 7? 10?

So let’s compare:

Michael Gillard – had consensual sex with a 16 year old, while her 13 year old sister was in the room. Sentence: 9 years 9 months.

Steven O’Donnell – unlicensed, drunk p plater KILLS an innocent woman. Sentence: 3 years 6 months.

So my old mate, Judge Chris Craigie not only seems to believe that having consensual sex with a 16 year old is a WORSE crime than choosing to drive when you’re drunk; than being so far over the legal blood alcohol limit that I don’t know how to calculate the percentage; than killing an innocent person.

I’m curious how many of you out there AGREE with Judge Chris Craigie that killing someone is worse than consensual sex. Anyone?

When will Australia do something about these young criminals? It seems people under 25 these days think they can do whatever the hell they want, and it’s someone else’s fault. And really, who can blame them when you see decisions like this? Steven O’Donnell should have been put away for AT LEAST 5 years, maybe even 10, in my opinion. He took a life. And not a burglar, or a thief, or a rapist. An innocent mother, on her way to work.

I bet that if someone broke into my house (ie: making a decision not follow societies laws) and I shot and killed them, I would get more than 3 and a half years. So why can I go out, with a history of driving offences, and kill someone while I’m unlicensed and double the legal alcohol limit, and walk away comparatively scott free?

Would the judge have been so lenient if the driver killed someone he knew?

They need to not only implement harsher penalties for this kind of crime, but they need to introduce a system – similar to motorbikes – where L and P plate drivers are restricted to the kind of car they can drive. Obviously, putting an inexperienced driver behind the wheel of a V8 is ludicrous. The hard part is the way they modify cars these days. I know there’s a lot of modified 4 and 6 cylinder cars out there with just as much power as a V8, so they need to find a way to address that.

I’m no mechanic, so I don’t know the ins and outs of mods. But i’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to limit P platers to UNMODIFIED 4 or 6 cylinder cars. And L plate drivers should be restricted to the family car, or UNMODIFIED 4 cylinder cars only.

And none of this “dangerous driving occasioning death” bullshit for drink drivers. You kill someone – that’s manslaughter. Manslaughter is the legal term for the killing of a human being in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. Isn’t that what Steven O’Donnell did?

Tell me your opinions