THE Young Liberals are proposing nine months of compulsory national service to be completed before the age of 24 and which people will not be able to dodge by going to university.

Participants would receive a social security payment and an accommodation allowance if their service required them to live away from home. The plan, to be put at the Young Liberals’ national conference in Canberra this weekend, is not restricted to the military. Young Australians could complete their service in overseas aid programs. Or they could serve in hospitals, old-age homes and other community organisations.

Young Liberals president Noel McCoy said the aim was to provide a sizeable low-cost workforce that would help to offset the impact of the financial crisis. At the same time it would help to instil a work ethic and sense of national pride, he said.

“Areas suffering from chronic inter-generational welfare dependence would benefit from having people returning to their communities having acquired broader experience, skills, discipline and values,” Mr McCoy said. “We’re a big believer in a hand-up, not a hand-out, and this is a very practical way of achieving that.”

Mr McCoy said that under the proposal, students would not be able to graduate from university without having a certificate of completion of national service. “National service would help lessen the potential youth unemployment crisis we are facing as a result of the global financial crisis,” he said.

“It would also provide a social benefit by developing a deep appreciation of Australian society and its traditions. It’s a good way of integrating young Australians of all backgrounds and socio-economic strata in … serving their country.”

James Davis, 28, who served in the army in Iraq for six months, said compulsory national service would lead to young people having a greater appreciation of their country.

“We have seen a decline in community values, which has degraded the community itself,” he said. “The military has always provided its members with a solid work ethic, a true sense of patriotism, mateship, camaraderie and self-sacrifice.”

The Young Liberals are hoping for bipartisan support for the idea, but that appears unlikely.

In 2006, NSW Young Labor, Australia’s largest political youth group, proposed a similar idea for compulsory national service to be completed before graduation from high school, similar to a scheme operating in Sweden. It included a provision that it could be served in the community or foreign aid sectors.

However, current president Matthew Walton said Young Labor was not supportive of the idea. He said he would like to know when the Liberal Party threw away its commitment to personal choice and personal liberty.

“I don’t think the Young Liberals are all that serious about this — I think it’s more to generate a headline,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone realistically believes that in Australia today young Australians should be compelled to give up almost a year of their life clearing trees or working for the army.”

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Credit: John Stapleton