"And maybe it's about time we looked at something like a national emergency service, where our kids don’t go to war but we’re going to need people to clean up." Warning of a "climate emergency" that will stretch the nation's emergency services, Senator Lambie said a Senate inquiry should be formed to consider a form of national service to encourage volunteers. Her call comes at a time when Queensland authorities are battling fires in the state's south-east with help from volunteers from NSW, South Australia, Victoria and the ACT. The NSW State Emergency Service, the NSW Rural Fire Service, the Victorian Country Fire Authority, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and other organisations are all trying to recruit more members, while some of them also cite climate change as a reason to expect more demand for their help. The NSW SES has a "volunteering re-imagined" scheme that lifted its volunteer base by 21 per cent, with the total number of volunteer members standing at 9110 in June last year.

The NSW SES cadet programs in secondary schools produced 500 graduates last year and the organisation said members aged 21 to 25 made up the highest proportion of its volunteers. While the CFA reported a strong contribution from its volunteers, it also ended last year with about 34,000 operational volunteers compared to a target for the year of more than 39,000. The QFES has 42,000 volunteers across several services in Queensland but has identified the "increasing impact of climate change" as a reason for greater demand on its services. Senator Lambie has not linked her proposal to ongoing negotiations with the government on welfare reforms such as the trial of drug tests for Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients, or the trial of a cashless debit card to control spending by welfare recipients. Even so, the outspoken Tasmanian senator will want government support for her plan for an inquiry into a volunteer scheme, an issue close to her heart because of her time in the Australian Army from 1989 to 2000.

"I'm worried about the members in the CFA, the SES and other organisations out there that are struggling to get members," she told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age. Senator Lambie said this was especially true for services in her home state of Tasmania. "What I do know is our SES doesn’t have enough," she said. "This is an opportunity for those young kids living in public housing, like I was, to be able to drag themselves out and have an option, give them a go. This is something I'm working on and it's quite personal to me." Australia established a national service scheme in 1951 requiring men to sign up for military training when they turned 18. A new scheme was legislated in 1964 to require men aged over 20 to serve, if selected in a lottery. The National Archives of Australia states that more than 800,000 men registered, with 63,000 of them being conscripted and 19,000 serving in the Vietnam War. The Whitlam government ended the policy in 1972.