.

Right: Captain Nichola Goddard was the first ever female Canadian soldier killed in combat. Captain Goddard, 26, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan.

Further implications

There appears to be something curiously misplaced about those arguments that seek to exclude women from front-line direct combat positions on the basis of seeking to protect them from the rigors of war.
As non-combatants women already suffer greatly in war. Given the extent to which warfare now involves civilian populations women are currently dying in significant numbers in such conflicts. In 2006, in Iraq, some 23,000 civilians were killed. In 2007 the figure was approximately 25,000. The total number of civilian deaths in Iraq since 2003 is approximately 100,000. It seems reasonable to assume that some half this figure were women.
Australia, however, has never been directly invaded and so has had negligible opportunity to become inured to the horror of collateral deaths in war, let alone warfare directly and deliberately inflicted on civilian populations.
Paradoxically, it may be for this reason that the Australian government and the Australian armed forces appear to support making direct combat front-line positions available to women. War, for most Australians, seems a long way off and involves fighting in another's country. This is perhaps why ADF recruitment advertisements often promote military training as a career opportunity.
If Australia does make such front-line positions available to women the opportunity is likely to be taken up by only a very small number. Currently only some 13 percent (or one in eight) of Australia's armed forces are women. Even if front-line positions are made available to women and, as a result, the number of female recruits increases, it seems it would be unlikely to rise to more than one in five.
In Canada, where front-line combat positions are available to women, the policy change has not resulted in an increase in the number of women in the Canadian armed forces. By the time a rigorous physical selection test were applied to Australian women seeking to serve in front-line combat positions, the number selected would probably be no more than one in twenty of the women applying.
It would be interesting to know if those who support making front-line positions available to women would also support their conscription. The answer is probably 'no', as many who support women on the front-line do so using the language of rights. Conscription is an obligation or an imposition, not a right. Women, it appears, should only to able to fight on the front-line if they chose to do so and then are found suitable.
Greg Combet has said it would be several years before women were eligible for military roles, as recruitment and physical employment standards necessary for selection were still being developed.
Australia has around 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, based mainly in southern Oruzgan province, and is the largest non-NATO contributor to international forces battling the Taliban. But the country's 53,000-strong military faces serious recruiting shortages with soldiers stretched from East Timor to Iraq, Afghanistan and the restive Solomon Islands. Even a small increase in personnel due to amking front-line positions available to women may help to alleviate this shortage.