Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak on the Social Security Amendment (National Green Jobs Corps Supplement) Bill 2009. The bill will amend the Social Security Act 1991 to provide for a national green jobs supplement of $41.60 per fortnight for eligible recipients of youth allowance, Newstart allowance and parenting payments who participate in the National Green Jobs Corps. The program will run from January 2010 to 2011.

I think it is really important at this point to look at the history of how we have come to be here today debating this legislation, because this issue has actually got a history. This program follows on from the Green Corps program that was in place under the previous government. That program operated mainly with volunteers. The people who undertook that program were in the age group of 17 to 20 years. Whilst it was not a requirement of participation in the program that you be unemployed, in reality most of the people who undertook places within the Green Corps program were unemployed young people. The Green Corps program followed on from LEAP, the Landcare and Environment Action Program, which operated under the Keating government. The Howard government immediately ended that program when it came to office and replaced it with the Green Corps program. LEAP was designed for young unemployed people and targeted the age group between 15 and 20 years. It aimed to broaden participants’ practical know-how and equip them with new skills. They worked in landcare, environment, cultural heritage and conservation activities. The Landcare and Environment Action Program provided excellent training to a number of young people, as did the Green Corps program. There were a number of excellent projects, and I will talk about some of the projects that were completed under that program.

The legislation we have before us today will provide better access to training and to green jobs for young people who are unemployed. I think most members of this parliament and most people throughout Australia know that, when you look at unemployment, the area with the greatest numbers is youth unemployment. It is also hardest for young people to move from unemployment to employment. This legislation will assist low-skilled job seekers who receive youth allowance or the other allowances I have mentioned to undertake work experience. This complements the government’s compact with young Australians which guarantees a training place for all those aged 25 who are not employed in order to ensure that they have the skills they need to find employment as the economy recovers, or immediately if possible. They will obtain a certificate II qualification. This will be available for young people who have not completed year 12.

The $41.60 supplement that they will receive per fortnight for undertaking training with the National Green Jobs Corps will allow them to travel to where they are undertaking their training. Young people who are unemployed or on some sort of government assistance do not have the same level of disposable income that other people have. I think it is imperative that we show some support for them by providing them with some financial assistance. In reality, in an electorate like Shortland, which I represent, the $41.60 per fortnight probably would not even cover the transport cost because it is quite a spread-out area and in some places they would have to travel by car or a number of different modes of transport. I think the fact that this supplement will be paid to people undertaking training will be very beneficial.

This program has a twofold benefit. One is that it provides training to young people and helps prepare them to enter the workforce. The other is that it helps care for our environment, and the projects that have been completed under the Green Corps program over a very long period of time have done that. One of the areas in my electorate that is very dear to my heart is the Belmont Wetlands State Park. It is administered by the Belmont Wetlands State Park Trust. One of the Green Corps projects was to assist with rehabilitation and regeneration work in the area. It included a special event for National Tree Day, which was held in August. There was extensive planting, removal of weeds including bitou bush, bush regeneration and extensive mulching. The team attended the Belmont Wetlands one day a week over a 26-week project. Approximately 10,000 new trees were planted in conjunction with the National Tree Day event. They have certainly made a difference, and the area that had been denuded over a very long period of time is starting to come back to life again. To a large extent it has happened through the work that has been carried out by young people involved in the Green Corps project.

It is interesting that one of the projects in that area that has been funded by the Rudd government through the Better Regions program is the $850,000 upgrading of the Fernleigh Track and that that part of the track will be officially opened this Friday. It is a credit to everyone who was involved in the building of that pathway, which is a shared walkway-cycleway. In addition to that funding, $2 million—the greatest amount of funding given to any project under the national bikeways and walkways program that the Rudd government has in place—was given to take the Fernleigh Track from Redhead to Belmont. That complements and goes through part of the area where the work was done on the Belmont Wetlands State Park. I put on record too the work that was done by Hunter Workways. Ged Holohan was very involved in making sure that this particular Green Corps project flowed so smoothly. It is a credit to everyone who was involved in that project.

As I have mentioned, I have been involved over a long period of time in Green Corps projects within the Shortland electorate. I think what gives Shortland its very nature and what is very special about the area is its pristine environment. It is a coastal electorate that nestles between a series of lakes and the coastline. As such, we have the challenges of ensuring that that environment and our bushland are cared for. That is why these projects have been so good.

Going back a few years, I was out at Floraville Gully, which is very close to Floraville Public School, on a tree-planting day in the time of the previous government. There were some workers there who were going to be involved in supervising a Green Corps project that was to start within a couple of weeks. They said to me, ‘Oh, you’re the local federal member,’ and of course I proudly acknowledged the fact that I was representing the electorate. They asked: ‘What party are you a member of? Are you a member of the government or the opposition?’ I said, ‘I’m a member of the opposition.’ They then told me: ‘Unfortunately, because you’re a member of the opposition, we can’t ask you to come along to the opening and the launching of our Green Corps project. We know you’re very interested in what’s happening in this gully in Floraville. We know’—because I had told them—‘that your children attended this school, but we cannot invite you along.’

I think that projects like Green Corps, projects that are benefiting the environment and benefiting local communities, are not something that you should play politics with. I think that members on both sides of this House should be getting behind and supporting them. I certainly want to see more projects like the Belmont Wetlands State Park rehabilitation that is being conducted as a Green Corps program, and it makes me extremely pleased to know that the young people who are involved in it will be receiving the $41.60 per fortnight to assist them with their transport and out-of-pocket expenses.

I thought I would touch on another Green Corps project that was recently completed in the Shortland electorate. This is to give the House a flavour of the work that has been undertaken by those people involved in the Green Corps program to date. This program was launched at the Gravity Youth Centre at Lake Haven. It involved work on a number of sites along the Central Coast of New South Wales, and it gave the participants experience where the project focused on areas where environmental sensitivity, conservation work and heritage restoration work was needed in the area. It was an excellent program, and those people who participated in it walked away with skills that they did not have at the commencement of the program. It was very successful. The feedback from all those people involved was that they had learnt a lot. They were all young local people. They all came from fairly disadvantaged backgrounds. The project helped them develop self-confidence, communication skills, teamwork and leadership skills and also some relevant vocational skills. It gave them an opportunity to expand their employment related network. The one thing that it did not do was provide them with any assistance to get to and from the project. I seek leave to continue my contribution to this debate later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

See this speech in context