The most immoral law a nation-state can make is one that coerces an individual into taking another individuals life. In the issue of conscription, it is immoral for a nation-state to use their monopoly on coercion to force an individual into service and then place them in a position where they may be required to take the life of another individual.

The nation-state does this for their own perpetuation, glory and selfish interests. It can be argued that moral clarity of any issue is lost once it becomes political and falls into the vehicle of state power. The original Defence Act of 1903 (link is to current legislative form) contained language that prohibited the government from forcing conscripts to serve outside of Australia. This was a very moral law.

World Wars

One of the first operations in World War I (WWI) by Australian forces was the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) which invaded German New Guinea in 1914. All the members of the AN&MEF were regulars. with the creation of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), most of the AN&MEF volunteered for overseas service.

The AIF was somewhat unique due to the language of the Defence Act which stipulated that only volunteers could serve outside of Australia. Despite Billy Hughes' attempts to pass referendums on conscription which would allow the government to send conscripts overseas as part of the AIF, the AIF remained a pure volunteer force right through WWI. No other nation managed that feat.

World War II (WWII) was slightly different. By then Australia had two military structures. The 2nd AIF and the Citizens Military Forces (CMF). Essentially regular Army and Militia. It should not be forgotten that the Kokoda Track was one of the great militia victories. The Defence Act restriction on the militia meant that they could not serve outside of Australia. But this was expanded to mean Australia and its territories. Since New Guinea was an Australian territory in the 1940s the Curtin government sent the Militia to serve there.

The Curtin government was also concerned in their ability to control the Militia forces, and decided that any militia unit that had more than three-quarters as volunteers was to become an 2nd AIF unit. This handed control of them over to the regular Army and enabled those units to serve in the Middle East or Europe.

Curtin had been strongly against conscription in 1916-1917 when Hughes had been stumping the referendums. The government was able to use conscription to raise forces for the militia, but could not use it to raise troops that would serve outside of Australia.

The issue of conscription was not popular in the Australian Labor Party, consequently Curtin enacted legislation that made the area of Australia and its Territories equal to the South West Pacific. The new map of territorial Australia stopped just short of the Phillipines, western Java and Northern Borneo. The Australia Militia could now be sent anywhere is this new expanded map. It was a gross abuse of the initial intent of the original Defence Act.

Vietnam

Australia maintained citizen forces until the 1950s when they were fazed out due to cost and the Army Reserve took over that role. When Harold Holt promised Lyndon Johnson an increase in Australian participation in Vietnam, he had nowhere to turn but conscription. Australians (and other subjects under the British crown living in Australia) were conscripted into National Service as the number of Regiments in the Australian Army were expanded.

The United States also used conscription to increase their commitments to Vietnam. It is interesting to compare the American and Australian experience of Vietnam to New Zealand's. Australia and America both faced domestic protests and upheaval due to the coercive nature of the government in participating in the conflict. New Zealand only used regulars in Vietnam, and had little of the social turbulence that Australia and America faced.

The conscripts in the United States Army rebelled heavily, even within the strict structures of the military. Alcoholism and drug use became widespread. There were even incidents of soldiers killing their officers. This is the value of a Citizen Army. When they do not want to be there, they let the government know.

Returning to the Intent of the Defence Act 1903

Governments have learnt the lesson of Vietnam, and other than the US deploying Reservists in Iraq, most have only committed regular forces in overseas conflicts. Volunteers behave better, and have less dissent than conscripted militia. But even so, there was a good balance in the Defence Act 1903 between the moral beliefs of an individual, and the need for a nation-state to remain a single cohesive entity. That balance was struck by only allowing volunteers to serve in overseas conflicts.

Too often overseas conflicts are participated in for the selfish interests of the nation-state having influence with other nation-states. They are not for defence of the nation-state, nor are they to ensure the nation-state remains a single cultural and political entity. They are for the self-glory of the government.

Curtin polluted the original legislation by making Australia the same thing as the South Pacific. I would like to see the return of legislation that prohibits military conscripts serving outside of Australia. It is a moral law, that balances the rights of the individual and their role in the nation-state.

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More Reading on Defence act

• Defence Act
• Morality
• ADF
• AIF
• Conscription
• The Morality in the Defence Act 1903