Right: Satire: Australia's attitude to conscription, especially wartime conscription, has often been influenced by the working class's suspicion of conservative politicians' motives, as is shown by this World War One anti-conscription poster.
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Further implications
Environmental and demographic changes are placing increased pressure on Australia's emergency services. Climate change is resulting in prolonged droughts, more intense bushfires over a longer period of the year and more instances of severe storms and flooding. Coupled with these environmental developments, Australia's ageing population has increased the country's vulnerability to such disasters. Older Australians are less able to cope with extreme weather events and natural disasters, while the nation's changing demographic has seen the age of emergency service personnel rise, creating fears that current volunteers will lose capability and may be difficult to replace.
It would be inaccurate to claim that the country is taking no action to address these issues. The increased emphasis on broadening responsibility for responding to natural disasters via community resilience information and training is intended to make the nation as a whole more disaster ready.
Changing recruitment strategies and patterns of volunteerism being employed and encouraged by Australia's emergency services are intended to make allowance for the changing lifestyles, preferences and abilities of prospective volunteers, allowing these services to draw on individuals whom more traditional forms of volunteer service would not suit.
Despite these accommodations to Australia's changing circumstances, Senator Lambie and others appear to be correct when they draw attention to the nation's growing vulnerability to a range of natural disasters outside our former experience. However, the national emergency service that Senator Lambie and others have proposed may not be the most appropriate solution. What is clear is that the country has an increasingly more complex and demanding set of emergency issues to address, issues which include a potential lack of on the ground personnel to combat natural disasters, especially fires, as they occur.
The media has largely focused on Senator Lambie suggestion that some form of conscription of the unemployed might be used to increase the size of the workforce that Australia's emergency services are able to draw on. This focus appears to be largely a result of the contentiousness of the senator's proposal. It was, for example, immediately challenged by One Nation leader, Senator Hanson, herself a frequent focus of media attention, and has provoked a wide range of extreme responses in the social media.
Senator Lambie has called for conventional, that is military, national service for the unemployed in the past, with similar divisive results. However, the media has paid very little attention to Senator Lambie's original suggestion that there should be a Senate inquiry into Australia's disaster preparedness.
The country appears to have become somewhat inquiry weary, perhaps because numerous significant inquiries have been held whose recommendations have not been promptly acted upon. One obvious example is the string of inquiries which have been held into the operation of the Australian family law system. In 2017, the House of Representatives inquiry into a "better family law system to support and protect those affected by family violence" made 33 recommendations, while in 2019 the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry made 60 recommendations to the government on measures to improve the operation of the Family Law Court. The government has not responded to either of these reports yet is about to institute a third inquiry co-headed by Senator Pauline Hanson.
Inquiries have come to be seen as stalling devices rather than as springboards for informed action. This may explain the lack of media attention given Senator Lambie's call for an inquiry into Australia's emergency services. Despite this, the suggestion has merit as there are significant problems to be investigated and hopefully addressed.