Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to talk on the Social Security Amendment (National Green Jobs Corps Supplement) Bill 2009. The thing that I really enjoy when listening to newer members of parliament is the complete lack of history. The member for Robertson, a member for whom I have some fondness, I must confess, as we share a parliamentary committee—and it has probably been a career-limiting move for both of us for me to mention that—was speaking about the Green Jobs Corps as if nothing has ever happened before, as if you can wipe off the whole history of its evolution as if it were never there, as if it is all brand-new, shiny and spunky and as if it is a great insight from the Rudd Labor government. What she has left out is that this announcement, which was the set centrepiece of the Labor national conference, has been ridiculed for its emptiness and has been criticised for its simple rebadging of activity that the former government undertook, much of which Labor in opposition opposed. Remember Youth Allowance and how trying to get young people to either learn or work was going to bring down the social fabric in so many societies? And remember how Work for the Dole was an evil, horrendous thing? Yet here we have it just by another name. And there is the whole idea of the Green Corps program, which Labor wound up on 30 June and then started again under another brand, dropping in the word ‘Jobs’ when there are not actually that many jobs as part of it. This is just fantastic stuff!

I feel for those people who are listening. They must think: ‘Gee, all these great insights! Isn’t it terrific to see Prime Minister Rudd doing so much—and he has learnt so much over the last couple of years. All the things he hated he now embraces quite wholesomely.’ And here we have them rebadged and brought forward as some kind of Labor government initiative. Alas, that is not the case. What we are seeing today is a bill to reintroduce programs that were allowed to wither on the vine, programs that the Howard government implemented that had wide community support but ran against the grain of many in the ALP. Those programs, such as Work for the Dole, were allowed to fall and atrophy. They were being defunded to death then they come back as something different, with a different name and a different tag.

Here we have a proposition to provide a temporary supplementary payment for participants in the National Green Jobs Corps program, people who are on youth allowance, Newstart allowance or parenting payment. This is an idea that looks remarkably similar to the previous Green Corps program, where there was a supplement available for people—actually more than the supplement that is being made available now—to do much the same thing. That program was not allowed to continue but it has come back, as most good ideas do—in this case, in the true traditions of the Rudd Labor government, just with a slightly different tag on it. Also, it does not encourage young people or people who may not be on one of those benefits to get involved. The beauty of Green Corps—the legitimate, authentic, first version of Green Corps—was that people did not have to be on a payment to participate. So if you were in a gap year between your secondary studies and university or trying to work out whether a career pathway in land management or natural systems management was for you you could actually participate. You did not have to be receiving a payment.

In fact, this payment is claimed to be great when it is less than what was previously available and is in a program that is narrower in its reach than the one that was allowed to fade, and it is being presented in this parliament and being spruiked amongst Labor members as some brand-new idea. This is worrying but it goes to the pattern we have seen so many times before. Here, the limits are on age, on eligibility for a payment and also on the activity that can be carried out. There is a two-year program horizon and then it will cease. So, after allowing Green Corps mark 1, the authentic program, we now have Green Corps light, called National Green Jobs Corps, which does not last as long, does not involve as many people and does not provide the same incentive to participate—

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