Tony Abbott wants high school leavers to undergo compulsory national service

Tony Abbott wants to see young Aussies forced into national service after they leave school.

Speaking on the Institute of Public Affairs’ Heartland podcast, the former Australian Prime Minister proposed that Australians over the age of 18 should spend six to 12 months ‘doing something for our country’.

“It’s about giving as well as receiving and I think we do have to talk more about what we can give back to our country,” Abbott said on the podcast.

“There are all sorts of things which people could do, whether it’s going to volunteer in a nursing home or something like that for a period of time.

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

Australia previously had a national service scheme, but that was axed by the Whitlam Labor government in 1973.

Israel, Cambodia, Austria, Norway, and Finland have their own versions of compulsory national service.

So does South Korea, a nation that requires able-bodied men aged between 18 and 35 to serve up to 21 months in the military.

Australian flag on military uniform. Credit: Bumble Dee / Alamy

Also in the podcast, the former Australian leader also lashed out at current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his push to introduce an Indigenous voice to parliament.

Abbott said giving Indigenous people a voice would ‘substantially worsen’ the Australian government and its system.

Abbott compared Albanese’s plan to New Zealand’s system with the Maori people.

“I just think this is a giant step down the path towards New Zealand style co-governance and I can’t think of anything that is more likely to divide our country and further gum up what is already, frankly, a pretty clogged up system of government,” Abbott said.

“It’s a seriously bad idea.”

Abbott explained that the move would give Indigenous people veto powers over decisions that impact all Australians and not just First Nations people.

As at 30 June 2021 there were 984,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which makes up 3.8 per cent of the total Australian population, according to 2021 data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.