Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate wants to reintroduce national service

As Queensland grapples with a wave of serious youth crime, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has come up with a plan to get troubled teens back on track. VOTE IN OUR POLL.

GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate has called for the return of compulsory national service to be considered as Queensland grapples with a wave of serious youth crime, including deadly stolen car crashes and fatal stabbings.

Cr Tate has floated the radical plan as a way of helping troubled teens ‘on a one-way ticket to jail’ get back on the straight and narrow.

But civil libertarians have slammed the idea, saying military service does not necessarily create “saints” and the mayor has a “sepia view of what happened in the 1950s”.

Compulsory National Service was first introduced in Australia in 1951, forcing all 18-year-old males to undergo 176 days of military training.

The scheme was changed in 1964 with the introduction of conscription to bolster Australia’s forces in the Vietnam War, but was ended in 1972 by the Whitlam Government.

Cr Tate has urged the Federal Government to consider reintroducing national service “given the continuing challenges of youth crime and family breakdown across Australia”.

He was referring to tragedies including the deaths of pregnant pedestrian Kate Leadbetter and her partner Matty Field who were struck by an allegedly stolen 4WD while walking their dog at Alexandra Hills in January, and young motorcyclist Jennifer Board who was killed in an alleged stolen car chase in Townsville in February.

Matty Field and Kate Leadbetter.

The Gold Coast has also seen a spate of serious stabbings, several of them fatal, involving teenagers.

“In the last six months, we have seen a renewed media focus on youth crime in Queensland – from Townsville to the Gold Coast and west to Roma,’’ Cr Tate said.

“Nationally, we are seeing it through Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory. I am the first to acknowledge that it is a complex issue with family breakdown, domestic violence, drugs and homelessness all intertwined in the challenges.

“But unless we do something in an affirmative way, we can’t be sideline critics and expect change.”

Cr Tate said Australian spent more than $1 trillion on social security and while most was warranted, some disenfranchised youth who were receiving dole payments ‘have no interest, or intention, of ever seeking work’.

“These youth often have no family structure to rely on and are pressured by their peers,” he said.

“In short, they are on a one-way ticket to jail.

“Once in jail or youth detention, the cycle starts and repeats. It is generational and we need to at least try something to break the cycle.”

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Steve Holland

Cr Tate said dole payments could be converted into funding for accommodation, training, medical support and mentoring to ‘give them (troubled teens’) the direction they need’.

“They can come out of a period of national service with a career as a mechanic, carpenter or logistics officer, rather than the careers they are currently carving out as thieves, drug addicts and car-jackers.’’

Mayor Tate said it was “beyond time’’ for a national conversation on the matter.

“I welcome everyone’s input as true democracy is about everyone having a voice but let’s not let the whining of the civil rights opponents overshadow what is a crucial discussion for our country.’’

Queensland Council of Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said his organisation did not support compulsory national service and questioned whether the military brass would want to ‘look after’ wayward youth.

“I don’t see any evidence that putting people in the army actually improves their behaviour,” he said.

“It comes from some sepia view of what happened in the 1950s. No doubt some people go into the armed forces and get some benefit, but there are plenty of misbehaving members of the military.

“Becoming a soldier doesn’t guarantee you become a saint.”

Originally published as Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate wants to reintroduce national service