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

I think we should be encouraging them to support that transition to employment. As my friend and colleague the member for Paterson said, you would think that would earn a bonus rather than a financial penalty. So that is another flaw in the program design. It is a diluted, poor equivalent of a very successful Howard government program, with less scope to participate, less generous financial incentives for those who are able to participate and a design flaw whereby all that we hope for—that is, a jobs outcome—actually is a penalty for program providers if a participant finds a job. Those are three fundamental flaws in a program that tries. It heads in the right direction but misses on a couple of important fronts.

That 30 June announcement saw a touch footy colleague of mine, Senator Arbib, left speechless. I am fond of Senator Arbib. He is not often speechless, but he was when he was interviewed about this big announcement at the Labor national congress. That was where the Prime Minister announced the spending of $94 million over three years to create 50,000 new green jobs and training places. What has subsequently been revealed is that 30,000 of those 50,000 represent additional learning and training places for apprentices in order to add green related skills to their traditional skill set. So they are not new jobs or training places but additional training for apprentices learning a vocational skill base in another stream. That would include, for instance, plumbers understanding water efficiency and water efficiency appliances, something I am very keen on, having launched, in partnership with the plumbers organisation, the national GreenPlumbers program. So, if your hot water service blows and you are really keen to get it replaced, there is someone there and then to point you to more energy efficient hot water systems or even solar systems. That kind of value-added, sustainable skill set in addition to an existing vocational qualification is a positive thing, but the 30,000 out of 50,000 supposedly new jobs and training places are neither; they are supplementary skill development for existing apprentices.

There are 10,000 places in the National Green Jobs Corps. Having given an account of the program itself, I note it certainly has not peaked early in its performance. I note my friend and colleague the member for Boothby’s contribution that, as of 12 August 2009, there were 36 participants in the program. That is not a screaming start after the 1 July start-up. The only thing that makes that look better is the effort of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Mr Garrett, with the Green Loans Program. In mid-August he finally came back to me after I had asked how many people had actually taken up a green loan. It was supposed to start on 1 July 2008 and then it was supposed to start on 1 July 2009. If I recall correctly, in mid-August the number who had received green loans was—have a guess.

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