Teresa Gambaro (Petrie, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to follow the member for Chisholm, because I have some great water-saving programs that the government has funded through local Work for the Dole participants. I want to talk about a terrific program in the Petrie electorate that involves both a valuable educational resource and Work for the Dole participants.

Last Wednesday I had the honour of presenting the Work for the Dole series to the graduates of the Waterwise Ways program. During the last six months the Work for the Dole participants in this excellent program have been provided assistance by Mission Australia and have produced an interesting and timely educational booklet and CD-ROM on water conservation. The Australian government has provided funding of $24,000 to Mission Australia for the program, and I congratulate them for their initiative.

I want to mention Angie O’Connor, Mission Australia’s Redcliffe service manager for Work for the Dole; Kristy Wyvil, Work for the Dole coordinator; Matthew Bender, Mission Australia community work coordinator; and Ben Cossalter, Waterwise Ways project supervisor. During the six-month involvement in the projects, the participants developed invaluable skills in the use of computers as well as administration, research and publishing, and they have encouraged the public to use resources such as the local library and departments to source the relevant information. The participants also regularly used valuable work skills, such as being able to use general office equipment, computers, printers, photocopiers and laminating machines. They became familiar with Microsoft packages and basic skills like typing, publishing and collation of data.

The project participants can truly be proud of their contribution to the local community and, under the Work for the Dole program, there are many essential services being done that otherwise would have been left undone. Like much of Australia, Brisbane and Queensland are in the grip of the worst drought and water restrictions in living history. We are currently on level 4 restrictions, and I fear that we will go to level 5 restrictions very soon if we do not have any rain in the January period. This comprehensive CD-ROM will now be available to students in the Petrie electorate and in regions. It will help them have a win-win situation and show them how to participate in water-saving activities.

The Work for the Dole program has always been derided by the other side of politics—they say it does not have any reality on the ground, it is not practical and its benefits are not recognised—but I spoke to those graduates last week and not only were they proud of their program and the contribution that they had made but also they had very strong aspirations for the future. I want to congratulate them and place on record the wonderful support that has been given to some 80,500 funded places in the Work for the Dole activities in the financial year, including 16,400 full-time placements at a cost of $217 million. Since the Work for the Dole program was introduced in 1997, it has been a huge success. (Time expired)

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