By 9News,Neil Mitchell

Copyright 9news

One of Australia’s most experienced elite SAS soldiers has started a behind-the-scenes campaign to convince the government to provide a form of national service for every student finishing year 10.

He says it would be nation-building and help to save “the anxious generation”.

His name is Harry Moffitt and after 30 years in the Army, he knows life and death.

He understands pressure, motivation, fear and courage.

He completed 11 active deployments and saw almost 1000 days of combat operations.

He was wounded and a good friend was killed in the same explosion in Afghanistan.

Moffitt is out of the army now and a qualified psychologist.

He describes himself as “a pacifist” and is a deep thinker about issues like juvenile crime.

His idea is to establish a tripartite system funded by industry, organised by government and assessed by academics.

He has already lobbied it with Labor ministers but is not overly optimistic they will be prepared to pay the costs involved to help save a generation.

Should there be a form of national service for young Australians?

Speaking to my podcast, Neil Mitchell Asks Why?, Moffitt supports the growing psychology evidence that obsession with devices, particularly phones, has robbed younger people of time and built an”anxious generation”.

“I would be sympathetic to a universal or nationwide gap year offering at every school as an option, at say the end of year 10.

“They could go off and do national service, although maybe we should move away from that term. Words mean a lot. Gap year seems much better.”

Moffitt says he has been “banging on” about the idea in the corridors of power.

“I think there’s a great opportunity here, a tripartite – business, government and academic – that we could incorporate into this.

“It’s not to make national service compulsory. We could make it so it is meaningful, purposeful and train some of the skills I think this generation appears to be lacking.

“It would be nation-building. One of the greatest investments and a generational investment we could make.

“I think there is something unique about this generation coming through that is good and bad but I think my mind turns more to the bad than the good.

“I think this is a response we need, a dramatic response.”

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The ADF already runs a gap year program for year 12 students.

They are paid around $50,000 a year and can leave after that time.

It is designed as a recruiting program.

About 725 people took part last year and around half usually sign for regular service.

Moffitt says that gap year is beneficial.

“They develop this great sense of camaraderie. It’s a life-changing experience.

“I don’t know many people who have served at any level for any period of time that don’t say it impacted them in a huge way.

“It’s not so much the militarism as it is their shared suffering, the shared adversity.

“If anyone thinks of the great teams they have been a part of in their life a common feature would be that they have shared something remarkable together.”

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The scheme he suggests would not be compulsory, but highly promoted and recommended.

Would the Army want to manage it? Would the government “bean counters” finance it?

Inevitably, he has ideas about funding.

“Get over yourself, bean counters.

“There are dozens of huge military industrial complex businesses making gazillions off the top of our taxpayer money.

“So you want to build tanks for us? Come and help us build a program.”

Moffitt said more work needed to be done to assess whether the program could be used in court sentencing of minor offenders.

A two-year form of national service, later restricted to 18 months, ran in Australia from 1964 to 1972.

An earlier, shorter scheme, ran from 1951 to 1959.

The Moffitt scheme is not designed to build army numbers.

It is more of a “boot camp” to help young Australians on their way in life.

Coincidentally, the Victorian opposition last weekend launched an idea for a compulsory live -in scheme, called ReStart, designed as a responsibility and discipline program but only for young offenders aged 12 to 17.

The theory behind the Moffitt plan is that military life can teach valuable skills and a sense of mateship which puts the kids on a good path, although a key question would be how many would then return to school.

Nobody would claim a well-structured gap year would turn around the lives of a generation of 16-year-old Australians.

But it may help.

Regardless, Moffitt has been a human performance manager for the SAS, our best and bravest soldiers.

He now lectures them on ethics.

He has put his life on the line countless times for his country over almost 30 years.

With his military background and psychology training, he has a deeper understanding than many about the concept.

He has thought it through and is passionate about it.

Like it or not, when this man walks through the door of any federal minister he deserves a hearing.

As a nation, it is the least we owe him.

Neil Mitchell’s podcast is posted each Tuesday through Nine Podcasts.

Harry Moffitt has released a book on how to maximise high performance called The Fourth Pillar.

It is published by Macmillan.