The ADF in general and Navy in particular is well short on numbers as it is. About 7% under strength as of January 2024.[0]
There are a lot of reasons for that, ranging from DFR rejecting excellent candidates for stupid medical "reasons" through to posting cycles that make it mostly impossible to maintain a long term relationship or raise a family.
The money is already pretty good by global standards. Pay is the least of the ADF's problems.
[0] https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/land/13648-australian-defe...
Interesting, former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull suggests Australia will never actually receive a single Virginia class sub. His reasoning is they're absolutely crucial to US defence needs, they take an extremely long time to build, and US doctrine won't allow sales to foreign countries unless US military needs are satisfied, which, for Virginia class subs, they aren't and are unlikely to be for decades.
The decision to drop an existing contract for French submarines and go with overpriced non existent US nuclear submarines was a classic case of head of state goes off book w/out consultation to steer massive chunk of a countries military R&D budget and future down a path no sane person wanted.
Pure PM ego trip.