In July 1972 I turned 21 and became eligible to cast a ballot at the next federal election. I had lived all my life in an Australia dominated by the conservative government of Robert Gordon Menzies and a few ragtag following Prime Ministers who seemed to have no real sense of what they were doing nor how to lead a country. Until December that year.

Here I was, like many voting for the first time, confronted by what became a pivotal post-war election in which Labor leader Edward Gough Whitlam promised to deliver a new way of life, a new dream that everyone could share, and leadership beyond belief.

I had no real clues about politics other than what I heard from others or read about in The Sun newspaper. There was too much going on to be bothered with stuff that belonged to my parents’ generation – too many girls to crack on to, too much beer to drink, too much rock and roll, and of course, full time work and part time study which didn’t so much as put a small dent in my social life.

I suspected my parents had been conservative voters though they rarely spoke of it because, as my father said, it was a secret ballot and thus one of the most important things an elector owned.

My father had seen action in the second world war and my grandfather in the first world war. My mother also served in the second world war in the WAAAF and it came as quite a surprise when she announced she would vote Labor this election. Here was a conservative woman preparing to vote against everything she had held dear and announcing it to all and sundry. Crikey.

Well, there was a specific reason and it was because Mr Whitlam had demonstrated that he stood for something that was dear to my mother’s heart.

He announced that the program of national service, or conscription, in which those eligible were plucked from their daily routine and thrust into uniform for two years, would cease if he were allowed to form government.

You might think my mother, having herself served her country in its time of need, would be unhappy with Whitlam’s policy proposal and under normal circumstances that may have been so but Australia’s young men at the time where finding themselves being sent to a little known part of the world to be killed.

There was a war in Vietnam and whether or not conscripts, or Nashos, as they were known, where going there and being killed had not concerned my mother, but that changed dramatically. Her own son had become eligible for the draft and she was having none of it. If this new bloke, this leader of the Labor Party, was going to stop the madness and take her son out of harm’s way then so be it – she would vote for him.

Fast forward to the election this week and I am put in mind of that time, way back 53 years ago, when there was a clear difference between the parties (there were no ratbags pretending to be minor parties, presenting ill-conceived policies) and leadership and real promises were what swung voters and votes.

My dear mother was one of them although at the time I was ambivalent about national service – it was something we all talked about and got blokey about and were prepared to do so I could not see why she wanted it to be canned. But what did I know about politics then?

Again, fast forward to the present and we might scratch our heads about whether we actually live in the same country that existed back then.

When a thread appeared on social media suggesting mischievously that the federal government was planning to reintroduce conscription because it had made an amendment to defence legislation, government media supporter SBS, among others, cried out that it was not true.

But what if it were true? What if the present government was intent on national service in some form or other for those aged 18-60 who have lived here for six months or more? Would the leader of the opposition, Peter Craig Dutton, support such a policy?

What if the opposition coalition parties had put forward a policy on national service or conscription? A policy that might be right for now, as it was probably right to remove it 53 years ago?

A former Victorian Premier suggested it a year or so ago. And no matter what you might think of Jeffrey Gibb Kennett, he had the stones to argue for it. He put it out there.

If the government is considering conscription to strengthen the Australian defence forces then it might be nice of them to tell us this week so we have something tangible to vote for or against.

We devote much time and heartfelt emotion to the spirit of Anzac, but it’s all historical and makes us feel good about our ancestors. What about the present? Why do we not feel the same sense of spirit about volunteering for national service now?

I suspect it is the same now as it was then – the vote is something most Millennials and Gen Zs do on a whim – whatever is offered that makes them feel good as it was in 1972 when Alison McCallum sang about it being time for freedom, time for moving, time for proving.

My mother would be turning in her grave.

Richard Stanton is the author of numerous books, the latest if which is entitled Good Eggs & Odd Fish: a manifesto for the 70 year old man (Ginninderra Press).