First, congratulations to our most deserved Australians of the Year: medical researchers Professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer on their groundbreaking research into melanomas. Also, congrats to young Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner on winning the Australian Open after coming from behind.

In the past few weeks, there has been a lot said about defence recruiting being well short of the targets set. The hoary old issue of conscription has been raised again.

I missed out by a day on being conscripted in the second-last ballot held in 1972. I voluntarily later joined the ARES in 1978.

I must say I have always been in favour of national service – as long as everyone has to do it. Ballots are inherently unfair. I know many of my old Army comrades, some of whom were nashos in Vietnam, oppose conscription as such – even though they tend to look back fondly at their time in the Army.

I agree with Admiral Chris Barrie RAN Ret’d, who favours a two-tiered compulsory scheme for all young people, both civil and military.

My suggested scheme would involve all 18-year-olds being conscripted to do national service for two years. You need at least two years to get value out of the conscript, especially in the ADF. The military could take the best suited for military service, and the rest could be allocated to various nation-building schemes. Most young people go to the end of Year 12, and many turn 18 whilst still at school. Obviously, they would be called up upon completion of Year 12. Those already serving apprenticeships could carry on their trade and apprenticeship training either in the military or in a civilian program. People would go to university at age 20 and above.

I would like to see as part of the scheme a requirement that all involved in the civilian scheme do their service away from their homes. A lot of 18-year-olds would grow up very quickly as a result of being involved in military or civilian national service and would quickly learn to really appreciate this country.

There are approximately a little over 300,000 18-year-olds in Australia. This scheme would cost a fair bit, but the benefits in terms of defence and to improving our communities, not to mention the greater maturity the 20-year-olds exiting the scheme would bring to our nation, would far outweigh the monetary investment in the scheme.

A number of conscripts stayed on with the ADF in the past, and I would imagine some would under this scheme. They could be offered short-term extensions of service initially, and would be ideal to train the cohorts of conscripts entering service. As the conscripts both military and civil would be provided with board and keep, their wages could be relatively low.

Food for thought, but I doubt if conscription will be introduced until we are actually at war, and then it may be too late. In the meantime, Albo, improve pay and conditions for our military. It helps retention.