Former PM Calls for School Leavers to Do Compulsory Military or Voluntary Service

Prime Minister of Japan, Kishida Fumio inspects the honour guard during the Ceremonial Welcome on October 22, 2022 in Perth, Australia. Photo by Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called for Australian school leavers to undertake a period of either compulsory military or voluntary service to improve social cohesion in the country.

Speaking to the Institute of Public Affairs Australia Future podcast, Abbott noted that if Australia wanted to improve social cohesion throughout the country, the government should bring back compulsory military or voluntary service for Australian 18-year-olds.

“We constantly talk about rights,” Abbott said. “We constantly talk about what we’re going to do for people. Yes, we have rights, and the government has certain obligations to us, which it should do. It’s best to discharge, but this is a two-way street.

“It’s about giving as well as receiving, and I think we do have to talk more about what we can give back to our country.”

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott addresses the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 18, 2014. Mark Nolan/Getty Images

The former Coalition prime minister commented that a volunteering policy in Australian Indigenous communities, aged-care homes or deployment to the Australian Peace Corps in the South Pacific or serving in the armed forces could help Australia become a stronger and more cohesive society.

“Saying to people who turn 18 or who leave school, ‘We expect you to spend a significant period of time, six months, 12 months, whatever, doing something for our country, giving something back, whether it’s putting on the uniform and becoming at least a basically trained infantry soldier,” he said.

“There are all sorts of things which people could do, whether it’s going to volunteer in a nursing home or something like that for a period of time.

“There are all sorts of things that I think we could very usefully talk about asking of our young people.”

Australia had compulsory military service from 1964 to 1972 after the Menzies government introduced balloted compulsory military service for 20-year-old males. The service was for two years and was designed to provide enough additional personnel during the Vietnam War.

Shadow Defence Minister Calls for Quicker Military Recruitment

Meanwhile, Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie has called on the Albanese government to create a quicker recruitment process for the Australian defence forces.

Hastie, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, alleged in a speech on Nov. 2 to the Business News Breakfast, that the department of defence had only managed to recruit 300 new personnel in the past few years.

“We must make onboarding faster,” Hastie said. “Last year as Assistant Minister for Defence, I discovered that it took 292 days from first contact to recruit training.

“Far too much time is wasted; we need to accelerate the process, or good people will be lost to other sectors of the economy.”

Hastie wants to see defence recruitment cut the red tape, which he sees as “bureaucratic barriers imposed by risk-averse gatekeepers.”

“I’ve met and heard from too many kids who get turned away because they’ve had a shoulder injury from footy, a food allergy or were medicated for ADHD in their childhood. All talented kids, motivated and open to grow—yet turned away because of risk culture. Not every job of the future requires the fitness of a fighter pilot or the endurance of an infantry soldier,” Hastie said.

He called for the government to move beyond the one-size-fits-all model and select recruits “who might not tick all the boxes but who can get the job done.”