Individual,

Is it possible to combine the two ideas - a year's national service for young people, AND taking up work in fruit- and vegetable-picking by young people ? A year - call it a gap year - in which young people move around the country doing all of those jobs, seeing the country perhaps for the first time - certainly from the ground up - and getting paid as well ? Maybe they could gain some understanding of how people used to make their livings in the olden days.

Of course, paid by results, not by the hour: pick bugger-all and you get bugger-all. I did that for maybe two years, all up, between 30 and 40, met some great people, gained enormous respect for blockies and dairy-farmers, and farmers generally, and saw a lot of the country. Ate a hell of a lot of fruit too :)

We were in the pickers' quarters one lunch-time, having coffee, and a brown snake came up to the door, the only door; we all froze, each of us waiting for him to bite one of the others, and he seemed to sniff at us and moved on, while we went back to our cold coffee.

Compulsory work or solitary confinement for a year: All for it !

Joe

"Work for the dole. No fruit picking or whatever needs to harvested, no dole. I don't like the idea of National Service under any circumstances."

My feelings are most in line with ttbn,
- Only I think it should be an optional scheme, not compulsory
Where you get double-dole for full time work doing things to help the government / country - save money or be more productive and profitable.

Don't force them, let them choose the better option for themselves,
- And make it good option.

People who CHOOSE to take on this scheme
- get the financial benefits
- they also get training credits towards upgrading their skills
- so they can go on to do bigger and better things

People who CHOOSE not to take on this scheme
- get the absolute barebones basic minimum government assistance;

But they still get a minimum standard of basic education,
And they still get a minimum standard of basic healthcare,
And the opportunity of a job -
- the opportunity for more money and more mental wellbeing
- the opportunity for a better life
- if they so choose it.
And they should be encouraged to do so.

The scheme should not be an exploitation of lower paid workers but one which empowers the individual to get more skills and do better for him or her self.

Surely we can find plenty of useful things for them to do?

pseudo-mouth and pseudo-individual,

Sounds like a fantastic idea - just as long as neither of you have to do it.

Put the idea to rest and bide your time while Scott Morrison works out a way to open the international border and start flooding the country with low paid Asian workers who will end up in the cities when their visa expires hiding amongst their fellow countrymen and working in sweatshops and cafes until they get picked up as illegal migrants (in theory that is).

Armchair Critic,

Unfortunately the scheme being proposed by pseudo-mouth and pseudo-individual will exploit lower paid workers and will not empower the individual to get more skills and do better for him or herself.

But everything will be alright with their scheme providing that they or their family members are exempt from it.

It should be a scheme run by the Govt Welfare Dept & the co-operation of the farmers for UNEMPLOYED !
It has nothing to do with people travelling to & from cities. Don't condemn something before it's thought through. If you'd rather keep paying more & more taxes for more & more unemployable people then go & register your Tax file number so they can deduct it from your pay.
I'm offering an idea that would be a solution to get out of status quo & offer young people some hope !

individual,
It sounds like you want it to be a slippery slope!

Imposing solutions on young people, for a dilemma you wrongly assume they have, isn't helping them at all! Genuine opportunities are needed but instead your prejudices make you want them forced into dead end jobs.