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Canberra: Australia's navy gets a big Christmas gift this year: two months paid vacation for most sailors that will ease the effects of a recruiting slump but make the service Down Under look something like a part-time operation.
The navy hopes that by making life on the sea more family-friendly, it will attract the extra 2,000 sailors it needs achieve its target strength of 15,000.
Critics say the so-called shut down, which inspired a front page newspaper headline on Tuesday: "Navy Closes For Christmas", will worry Australia's major defence ally, the United States.
"Mothballing your ships for two months sends totally the wrong message to our region and to our allies," opposition defence spokesman David Johnston told The Associated Press. "I've never heard of anything like this. I'm flabbergasted."
All 55 navy ships and submarines that are not on operational deployments have been ordered home for Christmas, and the number of sailors who stay aboard docked ships as sentries will be reduced to skeleton crews.
It is not clear how many how many sailors will take extra time off.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio that the two months break for sailors, which begins on December 3, is "just a way of saying thank you and encouraging them to stay in the service".
Fitzgibbon said a shortage of troops was the biggest challenge facing the Australian Defence Force and making their jobs more family friendly was part of the solution.
"The family-work balance is a very, very important part of the equation," Fitzgibbon said.
Navy Deputy Chief Rear Admiral Davyd Thomas said that the break will not adversely impact national security.
An Australian navy frigate would remain in the Middle East guarding oil wells over Christmas and seven patrol boats would guard Australia's northern waters from illegal fishers and smugglers, he said.
Two ships would also be on standby, one on the east and the other on the west coast, to respond to any emergency at sea, he said.
Thomas said the navy always had a shutdown period over the southern summer, although this one was longer.
Choice
"We're trying to become an employer of choice. We want people to want to be in the navy and want to serve here," Thomas told reporters.
Thomas said he expected most naval personnel would take the time off.
Neil James, executive director of the independent security think-tank Australian Defence Association, agreed the shutdown was not radically different from previous years, although it was a few weeks longer and would involve more ships remaining in dock.
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