Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise to speak on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Green Army Program) Bill 2014. The measures contained within this bill seek to deliver on the government's election commitment to create a 15,000-strong standing Green Army, which will serve as the largest standing environmental workforce in Australia's history. The coalition believes in encouraging hands-on, practical, grassroots environmental action as a means of fixing environmental problems, as well as tapping into the knowledge of local communities and encouraging them to identify and fix their own local problems. This policy approach has great synergy with the successful work I have witnessed on many occasions in my electorate of Bradfield to protect and nourish the vitally important native bush of our area. I am confident, therefore, that the measures contained in this bill will be warmly welcomed in the electorate of Bradfield.

In the brief time available to me this evening I want to touch on three points: firstly, to speak about the vital importance of our natural heritage in the electorate of Bradfield and particularly the importance of native bushland; secondly, to commend the work done by many enthusiastic local volunteers to protect and improve our native bushland; and, thirdly, to speak about the measures contained in this bill and highlight the synergies between the approach that this bill proposes and what is already working very successfully in my electorate of Bradfield as well as in many other parts of the country.

Let me describe the beautiful, natural environment that we are privileged to enjoy in the electorate of Bradfield. In the electorate of Bradfield almost every resident is fortunate to live within just a few minutes of extensive swathes of natural bushland. Whether you back onto the Lane Cove National Park, like many areas such as West Pymble, West Killara and West Lindfield do, whether you back onto the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, as many in the north of Bradfield do, or whether you are between the many nature reserves and pockets of bush all across Bradfield you will know that native bushland is a defining characteristic of Sydney's upper north shore and of my electorate of Bradfield. We are very privileged in Bradfield to live amongst such beautiful native bush. Of course, as we all know, when native bush intermingles with suburban living it can be affected and degraded—rubbish gets dumped in it, weeds infest it and native plants can struggle to survive. In other words, there is a real danger that the unique character of our native bushland can be compromised, for example, by rapid growth by introduced species.

The native bushland of Australia is extremely important to our national identity and to our sense of self, and it is a critical element of our overall environment. Any Australian who has been to other parts of the world where eucalypts have been planted—and I am thinking particularly of California—will know that when they see and smell the eucalypts in those other places that immediate rush of recognition for the home that we all know and love so well. The affection that we all have for our native bushland in Australia is as true in my own electorate as it is all around the country. Indeed, I would venture to say there is a particularly fierce pride in, and affection for, our natural bushland in Bradfield and the remaining native timber, such as turpentine timber and so on. We are very fortunate in Bradfield that we have a thriving community of local bushcare groups who weekend after weekend head into their local patch of natural bushland, whether it be some of the remaining stands of blue gum high forest or some of the other unique pieces of native bushland in Bradfield.

In the second part of my remarks I particularly want to pay tribute to the work of bushcare groups in my electorate, the hardworking volunteers who remove from local bushland rubbish, refuse and noxious weeds to stop them from spreading. Volunteer organisations, such as the Bushcare groups within my electorate—and, of course, around the country—are of vital importance in maintaining the natural heritage of our native bushland. They help to preserve local biodiversity through caring for native plants and animals. They plant native seedlings and they educate and provide training workshops for those who want to know more about maintaining local bushland. Over the last couple of years, as I have come to know the local Bushcare groups better, I myself have had the benefit of being educated and being able to recognise such species as lantana, privet and trad—all of which, of course, are not native. The Bushcare groups do outstanding work and I want to acknowledge the very important contribution that they make.

In Bradfield, we are privileged and fortunate to have a very large number of Bushcare groups. In fact, so far we have identified some 88 groups. I have had the privilege of visiting several of those groups, including the Quarry Creek Bushcare Group in West Pymble, under the leadership of Bill Jones, the Geary's Way Bushcare Group in Killara, led by Hugh Lander, and the Broadway Bushcare Group in Wahroonga, led by Harry Lock. In each case, these leaders and the volunteers working with them were very generous with their time and expertise in sharing with me the stories of the work they do and showing me some of the areas which they have successfully regenerated.

I also want to acknowledge the important work of Ku-ring-gai Council and Hornsby Council in supporting the Bushcare groups and providing important resources and training to underpin their work. But, most importantly, I want to acknowledge the work of the volunteers in the Bushcare groups. The work that these volunteers do is of the highest importance in preserving our environment against the many pressures to which it is subjected by our modern lifestyle. They really do tremendously important work, and I congratulate them on all that they do.

I want to also note here the fact that there is nationally an initiative known as Bushcare's Major Day Out. I recently had the opportunity to meet with representatives of Bushcare's Major Day Out—Linda Watts, Don Wilson and Gail Giles-Gidney—who briefed me on this important national initiative. It is a national day designed to encourage all of us to take part in the restoration and maintenance of our remaining bushland. Key stakeholders in this day include Landcare Australia and, locally, Willoughby Council. I was impressed in the recent meeting that I had with Linda, Don and Gail as to the extent of their work in planning the successful national event to stimulate interest in and support for the restoration of our native bushland.

Thirdly, let me turn to the synergy between some of these effective volunteer activities to protect and improve our natural bushland and the philosophy which underpins the coalition's election commitment to build a 15,000-strong green army—an election commitment which, of course, is given concrete form in the measures contained in the bill before the House this evening. One of the inspirations for the coalition's Green Army is, of course, the very successful Green Corps program implemented in 1996 by the Howard government. That program had the purpose of employing young people in environmental projects to preserve and restore our natural and cultural environment. The thinking of the Abbott government in devising the policy measures which are contained in the bill before the House is that there is a strong case for a nationwide environmental deployment to provide young people, in particular, with access to sustainable employment that encourages hands-on, practical grassroots environmental action as a means of fixing environmental problems. Also, it provides on-the-job training and the opportunity for participants to gain important skills and put their time and effort towards qualifications in land management, park management, landscaping or horticulture.

The former Green Corps program, which I mentioned, was, unfortunately, white-anted—gutted by the previous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government. They transformed it into a program under which young long-term unemployed Australians were reclassified and continued to receive an income support payment, but actually there was very little done under the modified program—the transformed, gutted, and white-anted program—to help the environment. Labor's program did very little to motivate the long-term unemployed to move into employment. There was no element in its design of targeting those specifically interested in the conservation of our national environment. There was no specific attempt to reach out to people with that particular affinity and enthusiasm to draw them into participating in the program.

The proposed approach that the Abbott government intends to take, as is encapsulated in the measures set out in the bill before the House this evening, is very different, I am pleased to say. This government will take a very different approach to the approach of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government. We intend that the work that will be available to those who choose to join the Green Army program will have a direct and tangible impact on their local communities and their local bushland. One of the reasons that I enthusiastically support this policy direction, as I spoke about earlier, is the successful outcomes that I have seen from a similar kind of approach in the Bushcare groups working in my own electorate and the work that is done nationally. Of course, the measures contained in this bill are different and distinct, but I simply make the point that there are some clear similarities of philosophy with the successful Green Corps program employed under the Howard government.

The Green Army is intended to undertake work of vital importance to regenerating and preserving areas of our natural bushland and environment. The kinds of projects that it might encompass include propagation and planting of native seedlings, weed control, revegetation and regeneration of local parks, habitat protection and restoration, improving water quality by cleaning up waterways, revegetation of sand dunes and mangroves, creek bank regeneration, foreshore and beach restoration, construction of boardwalks and walking tracks to protect local wildlife, and cultural heritage conservation. In the 2013 election campaign, we were able to announce a substantial number of projects likely to be carried out, or intended to be carried out, under this policy approach. Just to mention a few, there was planting riparian zones for native wildlife in the Kings Bridge to Duck Reach area of the South Esk River in Tasmania; enhancing the health of Victoria's Barham River system between Apollo Bay and the Marengo flora reserve through extensive weed removal, the revegetation of the banks of the river and the installation of pathways, viewing platforms and environmental interpretive signage; and, within the Laura Bay Conservation Park in South Australia, protecting the natural environment of the conservation reserve from soil erosion, stormwater damage and unauthorised access by random off-road vehicles.

A mere itemisation of some of these projects gives one a very real sense there is a lot to do. There are a plethora of projects through which participants in the Green Army Program will be able to do vitally important work to improve and protect our natural environment. The benefits of this program include not only the specific and very substantive and important benefits to the environment but also the benefits to its participants of acquiring vital experience and improving their own capacities and skills. As I have mentioned, a key intent of this program is to make it attractive to those many young people who have a particular affinity with our natural environment and who are motivated to make their own contribution to improve our natural environment.

The program will commence in 2014-15 with the rollout of 250 Green Army projects with approximately 2,500 people undertaking on-the-ground environmental activities. By 30 June 2017 the program will have had 1,500 Green Army projects with 15,000 placements undertaken. This program will be scaled over time. This is a program that will make a real difference to improving the environment of our communities—it will deliver real and tangible benefits for the environment, it will deliver skills to many thousands of young Australians and it will strengthen local community involvement. So, for a whole host of reasons, this is an excellent program. The measures set out in the bill are ones which I warmly commend to the House.

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