Rubbish Individual. The armed forces are for the defence of the country, not a bolt hole for the incompetent & the no hopers. The defence force has enough trouble covering the cost of equipment & personnel to do that job, with out wanting to turn it into yet another welfare hole, into which to tip money.

The defence of the country requires the very best it can find & attract, not a bunch of useless that can't perform well enough to survive in the workplace. Surely we tip enough money & effort into welfare already, without trying to contaminate other important functions.

I've got to stand with Aiden on this issue.
Everyone Aussie citizen should have a right to a basic standard of medical care when they need it.

But that doesn't mean I think people should be able to call the ambulance or home doctor 4 times a week for a kids sniffles.

Nor do I think people who put themselves at risk of harm by doing stupid things should expect others to pay for their mistakes.

There needs to be balance, value and fairness to the taxpayers that foot the bill.

Parents are largely to blame.

'Good parenting' has been reduced to the functional ability of getting the kids to and from school, sport; washing their clothes and dishes and paying for their education. Gone is the modelling for the traditional notions of purity, virtue, motherhood/fatherhood or manhood. We are seeing a cultural “earthquake” so shattering that people seem to have lost their levelheadedness, with their elected representatives blithely going along in the process.

AC,

You don't exactly stand with Aidan, who states that health care IS a right. You say there SHOULD be a right. Aidan is wrong: there is no such right. You are indulging in wishful thinking, and many people would agree with you. But, there is a lot of nonsense talked about 'right's, most of which are made up by utopians. Can anyone name a 'right' that is law and enforceable? Take the right to life, for example. It will not stop our lives from being taken if someone is determined to do us in. That person might be punished after the event, but the 'right' will not protect us. Rights are baloney.

Hasbeen, I didn't realise this was so difficult to comprehend.
No-one's suggesting that these young miseducated & unemployed are to be put in the left seat of a fighter jet, what i am suggesting is exactly what I said & that is to firstly place them into an environment of responsible other people where hopefully, some of that sense of responsibility & respect will rub off.
The armed forces aren't surely made up of top guns in every section of operation. There are always basic jobs which would be a good starting point for those many who don't seem to get the opportunity in society to become functioning members.
There's emergency work to be done, cleaning, supply of goods & dozens of other services required in maintaining the running of the country.
Surely, having young people out there doing things which many will take as an opportunity to step up is better & cheaper than paying Billions to do nothing but vegetate. Reporting to a team leader would by nature be better than reporting to some uninterested Centrelink officer.

Oooops ! I meant of course 'in the left hand seat of a military jet'

Hey ttbn,
"You don't exactly stand with Aidan, who states that health care IS a right. You say there SHOULD be a right. Aidan is wrong: there is no such right. You are indulging in wishful thinking, and many people would agree with you."

I don't? Hmmm, well I guess you successfully argued my error and earned it so ok then...

- But if I disagreed would I not be entitled the 'right to a fair trial'?