You want this to be a form of punishment for bad teenagers.
Paul1405,
Either you're simply too self-absorbed or too insipid to get the gist of the proposal. No-one will be "punished". Any punishment warranted should be carried out by the Judiciary & the only way we can get the Justice system to achieve the improvements that are so sorely needed, a Non-Military National Service (NMNS) will prove a very positive influence early in the piece.
A NMNS can be spread all over from Private enterprise to State run. As everyone would benefit, everyone should participate. The whole idea is to expose near young adults to the trials & tribulations of everyday life. The reason why we have so many idiotic policies is because of highly educated but just as highly ignorant people enforcing bad policies. Hardly any Uni graduates would have any idea about what normal functioning society has to stress about in a standard working day due to such poorly considered policies. Unless of course you point out the policy makers who didn't attend University !
Think of the more switched on young who would influence others to become more switched on instead of entering adulthood as listless Lefties as has been the norm since the Goaf !

Hi Foxy,

" Giving them training in skills, discipline, goals, is not punishment."

Totally agree, sustainable and positive with genuine outcomes. But once you make it compulsory its destined to fail. We have no more right to conscript 18 years old than we do 80 year olds, although my SENIORS NATIONAL SERVICE has great potential (ha, ha). This proposal of Indy's is based on his values and social norms, the Hitler Youth was based on Adolf's values and socal norms, same difference. The fact as I pointed out 300,000 18 year olds in Australia, some practical hurdles I do see. "work for the dole" schemes have always been politically motivated, used to "punish" young people for their own failure, not societies failure to them.

p/s Since someone mentioned SENIORS NATIONAL SERVICE do you think 2 cans of beans per week will sustain the typical 80+ year old, or should we make it 3? At a buck a can that's extra $150k per year, could break the budget. AND there is only 150,000 people 80 and over in Oz, what a saving compared to Indy's 300,000! I'm multi-tasking at the moment as well as SNS I.m working on the Oz manned mission to Pluto!

Talking about Russia saving children?

According to the BBC at least 19,500 Ukrainian children
have been deported and forcibly displaced from their
homes to Russia and Russian occupied territories since the
full scale invasion began in Feb 2022 and of those only
388 have managed to return home.

Hi Paul,

I'm talking about giving school leavers a chance. Pointing
them in a worthwhile direction. I think the idea should not
be dismissed without discussion.

We are in a collective battle since the pandemic - against
isolation, depression, scarcity of all kinds, political
polarisation and ever growing threats that neither markets
nor governments alone can solve.

Our young people are the future.

>>"work for the dole" schemes have always been politically motivated, used to "punish" young people for their own failure, not societies failure to them.<<
- Exactly, that's why this whole area needs a rethink.
If the problem is that our system creates people that are considered a 'failure', then we need a foolproof system, that catches these 'failures' and gives them every chance to not be considered as such.

We need to build a system that works for them and for us.
One day they will BE us.

'Fair go'
We used to pride ourselves in that.
I'm sure there's plenty kids out there that do want a job, but can't one, or don't have transport etc.
We need to plug these gaps.

The job you have when you don't have a job.
No handout, just a handup,
- and an insurance against falling down.

I'm sure there's plenty kids out there that do want good lives and to get ahead, but they just have absolutely no idea of what they're supposed to do or how to go about achieving it.

We can do better.

Associate Professor of National Security and Strategic Studies at Curtin University, Alexey Muraviev, wrote a piece in January in which he said, “Perhaps it is time for Australia to consider another uncomfortable subject - the return of conscription”.

He must have had some hairy chested responses from keyboard warriors. As well as thanking them, he pointed out in another piece this month that, “At no time was I advocating for the return of conscription”. He said that conscription should be a LAST RESORT applied in wartime.

But, even then, it does not guarantee a “quantitative boost” of numerical strength.

The Ukraine experience of general mobilisation shows that drafting people “against their will” is not a “game changer on the battlefield”.

Conscription contributes to “poor morale”, “cases of disobedience” and increasing casualties among “poorly trained, poorly motivated troops.