We couldn't afford it.The army base at Wacol near Brisbane has been sold to the Allmighty developer and I wonder how many others in Australia have gone the same.
But I agree with the idea.
We couldn't afford it.The army base at Wacol near Brisbane has been sold to the Allmighty developer and I wonder how many others in Australia have gone the same. But I agree with the idea.
It hasn't been used as an army establishment in years, they just don't need it. It used to be a refugee centre when I was at Amberley back in the 70's.
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Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
The army doesn't need national service, and the country can't afford it... but the current crop of brats that are running around these days could sure as hell benefit from the discipline.
Cheers, Steve.
-- Edited by Ondabeach on Monday 18th of May 2015 10:12:43 PM
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Cheers, Steve.
"Any day above ground is a good day... unless you're a spelunker :)"
There is plenty for the "dole bludgers" to do if the councils and shires got their A into G. Drove across from Jericho to just before Longreach today. At one toilet stop I got out a large black rubbish bag and filled it in minutes. Could have filled another dozen easily just in that area. Plenty of roads around the country side need a good clean up.
Then you get the nice tidy parks around Springsure kept tidy by the boys at the local Correctional Facility. They came with their lawnmowers and whipper snippers the morning I was there and did a damn good job, very polite and friendly and apologised for being noisy.
National service has absolutely nothing to do with community programs such as "work for the dole" or local council beautification schemes. Just what the ADF would do with thousands of largely unwilling conscripts escapes me.
Any kind of National service whether ADF or Community would make a difference to some of those who seem to be living an aimless life IMHO.
I personally knew one young bloke that was wasting his life dole bludging and on drugs, even assaulting his father, he couldn't hold a job for very long or stay very long in accommodation etc. Someone managed to get him off the drugs and into the ADF and his life did a complete turn around, he has since served in Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan in combat roles and he is a very different man today to what he was.
I look back on my 20 years in the ADF and wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn't joined, I was a pretty wild young bloke.
Community service has also turned some lives around of some who were otherwise leading hopeless lives.
