The Australian military will now allow women to take frontline combat roles. This happened as the result of a new policy allowing all military positions to be filled on merit rather than gender within five years. Only three of Australia’s military partners allow women on the frontlines — New Zealand, Canada and Israel.
For more, see here.
Feminist Philosophers 
For readers interested in some additional coverage from The Independent, see:
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https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/why-we-need-women-in-war-zones/#comment-37564
This is an interesting story but it makes me laugh that Stuart Robert criticises the fact the Government has removed the bar before they have carried out empirical analysis on whether women are able to reach the existing standards. Empirical analysis is irrelevant. If standards are there to ensure that the candidate has the necessary qualities to succeed at the job then it shouldn’t make a difference what sex they are or whether they have blue eyes or any other factor. If the standards are sufficiently set then nothing else matters. If a monkey passed the standards then the monkey’s good enough for the job.