Pauline Hanson hits out at Tony Abbott for being ’26 years too late’ as he proposes national service for school-leavers

One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson has hit out at former prime minister Tony Abbott over his proposed plan for young Australians to “give something back” to the country by doing a stint of compulsory national service. 

He proposed the plan on the Institute of Public Affairs’ Australia’s Future podcast, which would entail school-leavers spending a “significant period of time” completing some form of service to the country.

Under Mr Abbott’s scheme, this service can be in the form of “putting on the uniform” or completing a broad scope of volunteer work.

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Ms Hanson appeared on Sky News Australia on Monday night and slammed Mr Abbott for being “26 years too late”. 

“Tony Abbott is 26 years too late…I said that in my main speech about a national service 26 years ago,” she told Sky News host Paul Murray.

“He should’ve got behind me then, backed it and did something about it when they could, when Howard was in government.

“Politicians have got their heads in the bloody sand.”

Ms Hanson also argued that defence departments don’t want the responsibility of mandatory service anymore. 

“Over the years, I’ve spoken to the heads of these defence force departments, and they’ve said they don’t want to take on the responsibility of these people,” she said. 

“Because they know their rights, they will not be able to control them, they will be more trouble than what they’re worth…and the fact is, they only want the people that want to be there.

“So Tony your too late, your too late mate. You should have done something about it years ago.”

Meanwhile, Mr Abbott suggested working in a remote Indigenous community, a nursing home or deploying in the Australian Peace Corps as options for those not interested in military service.

“Whether it’s going to work in a remote Indigenous community to try to ensure the schools have got plenty of good role models for young people,” he said on Monday morning. 

“Whether its deploying in the Australian Peace Corps to the South Pacific.

“There are all sorts of things that I think we could very usefully talk about asking of our young people.”