Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Green Army Programme) Bill 2014. I was always interested in the program as it operated previously under the Howard government because what I saw was young people being given the opportunity to acquire skills, acquire discipline within a team process and demonstrate for the future that they were very capable young workers who would fit into the workplace in which they sought opportunity. It provided them with a practical experience which enabled them then to convince employers of the future that they were somebody worth considering. Equally, a number of them went into tertiary pathways and undertook studies in the area that had tweaked their interest, and they have gone on to be very successful—some are working with mining companies.

When we talk about the Green Army project, we are talking about a coalition plan aimed at bringing together 15,000 people. It will be the largest standing environmental workforce in Australia's history, providing real and practical solutions to cleaning up riverbanks and creek beds and revegetating sand dunes and mangrove habitat, among other environmental conservation and remediation work.

The Green Army provides an incredible opportunity for young Australians aged 17 to 24 to train and gain experiences and competencies in environmental and heritage conservation. Question time today raised the issue of workforce opportunities. I have heard members opposite find reasons not to support this initiative. But, when we consider young people's pathways into careers, this is one mechanism and one opportunity that will enable them to move into careers. The participants will undertake nationally recognised training qualifications and complete core and elective units which include, for example, Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management, Certificate II in Drainage and Certificate I in Construction. But they will also be dealing with occupational health and safety issues in the context of that training. This will enable individuals to embark on a career in conservation management while participating in projects that generate real benefits for the local environment and the heritage conservation projects across Australia.

I support the sentiment expressed by the member for Banks that there are areas that require some particular focus of attention. Often it is volunteers that do the work. But, when you have an army of people that help you, you increase your capacity to undertake the remediation of our environment. The program will cover costs associated with the involvement of the team, such as participant allowances, team supervisors' wages, uniforms, safety gear, basic equipment such as hand tools, participant training, local transport costs and insurances. The Green Army is an ongoing program that will have 250 projects in 2014-15, 500 projects in 2015-16 and 750 projects in 2016-17.

In my electorate of Hasluck, there are three Green Army projects—one in the north of my electorate centred on Midland, the second in central Wattle Grove and Forrestfield, and the third in the southern corridor of Gosnells and Thornlie. As a member, I am interested in the environment. Certainly, when you consider that Hasluck takes in the suburbs of Guildford, Swan Valley, Kalamunda, Gooseberry Hill, Forrestfield, Wattle Grove and Gosnells, just to name a few, and the bordering foothills of the Darling range, then you have an enriched environment that is unique in its flora and fauna. It is no surprise to people who visit these places that environmental issues are considered by many of my constituents to be of high importance. When I meet with constituents and environmental groups in my electorate I make a point of telling them that I have had a long association with our environment and that we will now have three Green Army projects in Hasluck. I am proud to be a member of this Abbott government in which the minister, Greg Hunt, has given a commitment for this to occur. When we make a commitment and we tell the Australian public that we are going to do something, we deliver on our word.

It was great that Senator Simon Birmingham, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment, was able to help me launch the three Green Army projects in my electorate. It was interesting to interact with people involved. I learned of their support for the projects and their surprise at the level of commitment that we were prepared to make to protect the environment and equally the level of commitment that we were prepared to give those people who wanted an opportunity to acquire competencies and skills in conservation. Senator Birmingham joined me at the Tom Bateman reserve in Thornlie, which is part of the southern Green Army project. The City of Gosnells plan for the Tom Bateman reserve is to restore the natural environment, which is currently being used as a dumping ground. During my recent round of meetings with local governments it was concerning to hear that nature reserves were being used as dumping grounds for household, building and garden waste. I am confident that sites such as the Tom Bateman reserve can now be fostered by Green Army teams and, through the support of the community, these community assets can be maintained to the highest standards and their full potential can be realised. I would love to have gone back into those regions some 40,000 years ago to have a look at the natural environment—the waterways, the richness of unique species that would have existed in each area—and examine the relationship the local people had with the environment and the land.

It is important we ensure the nature reserves we have are maintained and preserved to a standard so they can be used and enjoyed by families in the area. The Tom Bateman reserve is a classic example of such a reserve, and. I am pleased that the Green Army Program will help to deliver social and environmental benefits for my electorate. Our collective aim for the Tom Bateman reserve is revegetation through the regeneration of natural bushland and for the construction of walkways to allow people to have safe access to this beautiful natural area.

Another nature reserve in this eastern corridor which will benefit from the Green Army Program is the Mary Carroll Park. This area backs onto the Gosnells Primary School, which has a vested interest in the area becoming a safe and welcoming community space. The program will make the area aesthetically pleasing so that it can again be used by families and the school to enable children to experience the natural bushland. I have learned from my relationship with the friends of the area that walking groups and bird watching groups are already using the site for their activities, so they will benefit immensely.

Mary Carroll Park has a large breeding wetland area. In the wet season, it supports large numbers of waterbirds, songbirds, reptiles, turtles and a reservoir of wetland flora. When the season is dry the animals diminish. The work of Eunice Robinson and her team has resulted in the regeneration of areas that had been destroyed by fire or damaged by people dumping rubbish. They have replanted vegetation natural to the area and in doing so they have revitalised the community's interest in the park. The work that they are doing with the support of the Green Army will see the greater enhancement of a very rich natural wetland, allowing it to be enjoyed by all.

The construction of walkways is important in our wetlands because it means that people do not trample through and damage those areas that are unique to the region. The work of the team will include construction of walkways, mangrove planting and riverbed revegetation. Throughout my term as a member, I have been volunteering to go out and spend time planting the right plants and learning much about the complexity of the interrelatedness between the vegetation and the animals living in the area.

When I was first elected, I saw a group of young people working at Lesmurdie Falls who were graduating from the program of their involvement. Two things stood out. One was the immense pride of having been involved in the program and having acquired the competencies and the confidence to work in an area that they had not been involved in before. I was impressed to hear them talk about what they had learned in school and their ability to apply it as a skill within the context of the work they were doing. When I asked them about the regulated hours of work, all of them said that it had been a great process for them because it had enabled them to commit to a team, to be part of the workforce and to have the opportunity to earn an income. Some of those kids would otherwise have been on the streets and I suspect that some of them would have ended up in incarceration. These were Aboriginal kids who had dropped out of school and had not followed the further pathways that we would normally expect children to follow.

In my own electorate I have an increasing rate of unemployment. If the Green Army provides a framework and a structure that will enable the unemployed to move into a mindset of what it is like to be in the workplace then this legislation will have achieved its aims. These people will not live in poverty, as was suggested by a couple; they will feel as though they are contributing to their environment and also to their community.

The Brixton Street Wetlands is another unique area that is suffering from major degradation despite excellent efforts by the local Friends of Brixton Street Wetlands. Brixton Street Wetlands in Kenwick is an extraordinary mixture of wetlands containing over 320 plant species and more than 20 per cent of Perth's flora in just 0.005 per cent of Perth's area. The work of the green army will preserve, maintain and protect this area of quality. The green army will be working to ensure that the rare and endangered species will have an environment in which they are not competing with local weeds. Over 97 per cent of the bushland on this waterlogged soil had been cleared for agriculture or housing, making Brixton Street Wetlands so important. Therefore, the green army initiative will provide opportunity for preservation and regeneration.

I commend the minister for having the vision to resurrect and to reinstitute the Green Army Program, because, to me, it tackles two key issues. One is that it brings forward our coalition commitment to the environment and to the preservation of the bushlands, the parks, the rivers and the wetlands that are so important in key areas. I think the underlying issue that is even more important is the fact that it is giving an employment pathway and an opportunity to the young people, who may have left school, who have not considered what their career pathway may be. These are young people who, through this program, will be given the opportunity of connecting to a learning course, either within a TAFE setting or, ultimately, within a university. They can then decide what full-time employment they will seek following that training. Some have been left wondering what they are going to do. This provides them with a practical approach, where they become involved.

As detailed by the Minister for Environment, the Hon. Greg Hunt, the Green Army Program will be a voluntary opt-in program that will involve short-term placements in a green army team. Where practicable, participants in the Green Army Program will generally receive a green army allowance as an alternative to receiving income support, and the program will provide work-like experience, activities and training opportunities for young people. Section 38H, to be inserted into the Social Security Act, states:

Despite any other provision of the social security law, a social security benefit or social security pension is not payable to a person if the person is receiving green army allowance.

In essence, they will receive one or the other—not both. We are clear about that. This is consistent with our philosophy of giving people help up, not a hand out.

I commend the bill and I certainly acknowledge the minister's vision and contribution to the two key elements of the environment and future employment pathways for young people.

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