Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Security Amendment (National Green Jobs Corps Supplement) Bill 2009. I would certainly like to acknowledge the previous speaker, the member for Pearce, for her understanding of the environment and the need for these sorts of programs. I should point out, though, that our Green Corps projects are quite specifically different and extended. If you consider statements by other members who have spoken this morning from the other side, their understanding of the introduction of Green Corps jobs comes from a time when climate deniers were very strong in the ranks of those opposite, as they are today. The Howard government may have had some sensitivities towards the need for greening Australia and an understanding of work on the environment, but how can those from a government of some years ago who were deniers of climate change actually understand now, while they debate against the CPRS or the ETS, that essentially things have changed. Our Green Corps jobs and our approach to Green Corps is about an understanding of climate change, so it is very much in a different context and it is an extension of what we understand the previous program to have been.

The core of this bill is relatively simple. The bill amends the Social Security Act 1991 to provide an additional $41.60 a fortnight to young people participating in the National Green Jobs Corps. The National Green Jobs Corps forms part of 50,000 new green jobs and training places announced by the Rudd government in July this year. The National Green Jobs Corps is a separate project to the current Green Corps activities provided by Job Services Australia. This new program is specifically designed for young unemployed people from 17 to 24 years of age. Participants will undertake a 26-week placement and be required to be in training and activities for 25 hours per week or 50 hours per fortnight.

Australian citizens and permanent residents who receive Newstart allowance, youth allowance or parenting payment will be eligible for the additional payment proposed in this bill. This payment will provide practical assistance with meeting the costs of participating in the National Green Jobs Corps. The National Green Jobs Corps has four main objectives: to provide young Australians with skills in emerging climate related industries; to provide young Australians with quality work experience in the environment and heritage field; to make connections between young Australians and the broader community; and to provide personal development in the form of teamwork, leadership and job preparation skills. I particularly note the importance of the fourth objective, that is, personal development. In tackling unemployment, personal development is a critical component of breaking the cycle of poverty and unemployment.

National Green Jobs Corps projects can cover a wide variety of important environmental areas: installation of energy efficient technologies, including building insulation; bush regeneration and planting native trees; erosion control; beach and dune rehabilitation; wildlife and fish habitat protection; walking and nature track construction or restoration; biodiversity monitoring; flora, fauna and land surveys and audits; developing community information and education products; community environment consultation and surveys; and activities to care for the natural environment and cultural heritage. It is predicted that 10,000 National Green Jobs Corps places will be made available from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2011.

In his second reading speech, the Parliamentary Secretary for Employment noted ‘young people are particularly vulnerable to the current economic uncertainty’. It is noted that during the 1990s recession around 40 per cent of school leavers were not in education or employment six months after leaving school. Today, youth employment is again the hardest hit—young people accounting for over 40 per cent of the increase in unemployment over the last 12 months. This is why National Green Jobs Corps opportunities are targeted towards unemployed youth. This initiative must be viewed in conjunction with the broader learning or earning direction of the Rudd government, which requires people under the age of 20 to be in education or training to qualify for youth allowance. This initiative, therefore, targets three areas of critical importance to the Rudd government: education, unemployment and environmental sustainability. It was interesting to hear previous speakers, particularly the member for Gilmore and the member for Gippsland, who both spoke about the need for these jobs; yet the Rudd government seems not to be performing in this area! It is quite interesting because, as I talk about my electorate, there are lots and lots of examples of how we have moved forward significantly in the area of providing jobs that are very much environmentally based.

In the past, my electorate of Forde has been a beneficiary of green projects. Last year I had the privilege of announcing an exciting project on Tamborine Mountain. Coordinated by Conservation Volunteers Australia, the Tamborine Mountain Green Links project involved 10 volunteers from 17 to 20 years of age. The main project involved flora and fauna surveys at three project sites. The surveys were of local grasses and of aquatic fauna, bird and plant life. This data will assist with the future monitoring and management of projects in the local area. There was also the opportunity to participate in track construction, native seed collection, plant propagation, native plant revegetation, and community education and engagement with the Tamborine Mountain schools and community groups.

The stunning mountainous Gold Coast hinterland, the environments of Forde, is an attractive place for environmental projects. For this reason, the Forde electorate has also received Green Jobs Corps funding for a project in the Numinbah Valley. This project, the Upper Nerang River Riparian Restoration and Giant Barred Frog Habitat Protection, is based at the Bornhoffen Police Citizens Youth Club at Natural Bridge. The project is to establish the first stages of a walking trail and a virtual herbarium at the PCYC. The herbarium will allow visitors to learn about native plants, trees, wildlife and insects. Activities involved in the project include installation of signage, mapping of significant sites, fauna and flora surveys, water quality testing, and seed collecting and propagating. Participants are also working on the Giant Barred Frog research project with Griffith University and their Endangered Frog Research Centre. The broader Numinbah Valley Frog Project is being coordinated by Jim Rebgetz from the Numinbah Valley Environmental Education Centre and by Associate Professor Jean-Marc Hero from Griffith University. These two projects have provided valuable training and skills to young people in Forde. Assuming that the proposals from Forde compare favourably with other proposals from across Australia, I anticipate the electorate of Forde to continue to be a hive of Rudd government supported environmental activity.

The members for Gippsland and Gilmore have made a number of statements in which they have asked where the green jobs are. It is clear that local advocacy and working with the community to find opportunities is very much an important part of what we as members do. As an advocate for many of the projects in my region, it is proven that the government will come to the party when it involves giving young people an opportunity to work. In an area that is very much affected by climate change, environmental based jobs are very important. As I mentioned, the member for Pearce, whom we know to have certain sensitivities towards the environment, has to some degree been cut from the herd because there are members who very much do not believe that climate change is occurring. It is very important that we all understand that those are the members who have challenged us about the green jobs. It is very interesting that they should suggest that, when they are fighting the whole concept of climate change. It is real, it does have an effect and it is the Rudd government that is working on climate change. No member should be cut from the herd. It is very much a case of them all coming together to support the legislation and ultimately these jobs that we provide.

The two projects that I have talked about have supported young people, their jobs, activities, training and learning within the seat of Forde. But there is a wider issue, a holistic issue, around what we, the Rudd government, are about. I have spoken previously in this chamber about education, training and opportunity. It is clear from the history of the Labor Party that we look towards the future in training, skills enhancement and the ability to give young people opportunities, particularly if they find themselves unemployed. Our history shows that we have set up systems and projects in the past. Our commitment to skills, training and even trade training centres, which we will roll out in this country, are all related to the overall plan to give young people opportunities. It will provide them not only with employment but also with the training and education that go with that employment.

For that purpose I will comment today on not only our environmental considerations for jobs but our trade training centres. In the last couple of weeks we had a major announcement in Forde, which I am very pleased about, as part of the $384 million commitment to trade training centres that we as a government have instituted. I would like to recognise and congratulate a new hub that has been formed in my electorate by three high schools: the Windaroo Valley State High School, the Beenleigh State School and Loganlea State High School. They have received $3.9 million to form a hospitality training hub in the region. While I have talked about the opportunities such high schools present for young people in the community, this will go much further, establishing the seat of Forde, that area and those schools as a hospitality training hub for the region.

Lots of people in my electorate, being part of the Gold Coast hinterland, are involved in the hospitality industry on the Gold Coast. With the skills deficit that we saw prior to the economic concerns of the last 18 months, this is very much a time for skills training and skills enhancement. As we emerge from this economic turmoil, people with skills will be very important—particularly, in my region, in hospitality.

Adding to this is another project at the Trinity College, which has also gained a trade training centre and $1.5 million which will focus on the automotive, manufacturing and construction industries. It is great news not only for my community, for the seat of Forde and for my advocacy, but also for our region.

The high schools came together quite collaboratively to make this particular project happen. About 18 months ago, I spoke to the schools I just mentioned and talked to them about the opportunities that these skills centres could present, saying that if they could form a hub it was most likely a way that we could present ourselves as a priority region for trade training centres. I want to acknowledge the people who were part of that. At Windaroo Valley State High School, Dennis Irvine, the principal at the time, was very receptive to the idea, and his replacement, the new principal, Kay Louwrens, has also carried on that legacy. At the Beenleigh State School, Ms Desley Hodge, who was the acting principal during that time and has retained her role as a deputy principal, and now Mr Matthew O’Hanlon, who has come on board as the principal, again are driving that process forward. At Loganlea State High School, Allison Crane as part of that particular consortium put the project together, talked at length to the agencies involved and proved the case overwhelmingly that such a hub could be established within the region.

As I said before, our Green Jobs Corps is one part of the complexity of maintaining employment and providing training, and also giving younger people opportunities.

Those three schools are part of the ENABLE Coalition, which is a group of 11 state high schools who have combined their weight. They pull together, collaborate and cooperate to make sure we provide good training for our region. I mentioned cutting people from the herd earlier; it is great to see that, when everyone comes together and works together, we can certainly get these outcomes for our region. The plan is to provide more opportunities through the National Green Jobs Corps program, the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program, working with high schools and working with vocational education institutions.

As you may be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I have said it many times in this chamber, about 10 years of my career was as a teacher and lecturer and then as a TAFE director, so I very much value the direction we as a government are taking. As the member for Pearce mentioned, not everyone necessarily has to aspire to a university education. That is quite true. There are programs for people at all levels in terms of their aspirations, and there has always been great demand for people who have good vocational skills. So if we as a country are going to move forward, if we are going to engender an understanding of ongoing training and development, it is very important that we have those skills at the vocational level.

I should mention that about 15 years ago I was instrumental in developing a process where we had reverse articulation from universities back into the TAFE system. As we all know, for many years in the education system particular colleges and schools acted as silos to a large degree, and articulation did not exist. It was clear that, while we have always developed great learning institutions in this country—and that is why a lot of international students prefer to study in this country—the reality is that for our own people there needs to be greater ability to move across certain areas of study, to take on an academic qualification and to enhance that with vocational skills. It is very much related to the whole Green Corps Jobs program, which is about giving people skills on the ground. So, while academically you may have an understanding and have had the training, the ability to empirically put those skills into practice is very important.

For those reasons, I applaud the Rudd government for our attempt to provide all opportunities. At a time when climate change is very much at the centre of the discussion taking place in this parliament—and, as we speak, in the other place—the important thing is to recognise that the science of climate change is something that we must understand and respect, and certainly do something about. The opposition quite often attack us as a government, asking for proof of climate change and where the jobs are. Here is a good example of the future opportunities that will emerge from our understanding of climate change and how we as a country tackle it.

The overall plan is of course to grow our educational base, to grow our institutions. That is good not only for Australian citizens and for their access to all forms of education but also for the emerging international market. Back when I was working in that area, international student access to programs in Australia was only in its very early stages, but the quality of the product we had developed—and have continued to develop—was clear. There are currently some issues about organisations and institutions that provide certain levels of training to international students, and we need to make sure that the quality is there and that people overseas who see Australia as a destination for study and training come here with the knowledge that they will get the very best education. Education and training of international students is worth over $15 billion to this country right now.

There is an acknowledgement across this House that education is a very important part of our society. Our communities understand, as does every family, the value of good education and access to that education. While it is traditional education that is accessed through our primary and high schools, including those in my electorate, the reality is that people should have choice about taking on certain levels of training, vocational skills outcomes, academic training and how we put all that together.

When we look at the program and our extension to the National Green Jobs Corps, we can see that this is a different program. While it is under the auspices of what has been around for a long time—and members from the other side have spoken about the history of all that—the reality is that the Rudd government’s extension is into new areas and will provide 50,000 new jobs in new or emerging industries. We do that on the back of climate change and on the back of an understanding that we as a country need not only to put in place a response to climate change—certainly from a political and legal perspective—but also to then prepare ourselves through skills enhancement. At a very basic level the National Green Jobs Corps continues what was started as a way of dealing with and managing the environmental concerns of the last 20 years. Things are changing. The jobs that we are now seeing and the jobs that we are encouraging through this particular program are very much about the future and about tackling climate change.

In conclusion, the program and the dollars that we are providing to young people will give them a further opportunity to participate. It will provide practical assistance and financial reward for the people who are taking the opportunity to provide themselves with some of the necessities of transport, clothing and other costs associated with involving themselves in a program. It is also a recognition that this government is very serious about jobs. We are serious about young people, we are serious about our community, and we are very serious about climate change. While I urge, and have continued to urge, the opposition to update their response to climate change, they can now have the opportunity, certainly in the Senate, to come on board with us and not cut one another from the herd but work together as one group of people who move forward as a nation and provide opportunities for all of us and have a significant effect on climate change for this country. For those reasons I commend the bill to the House.

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