Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government's Green Army will commence in July 2014, providing young people aged 17 to 24 with valuable work skills and formal training qualifications in areas of environmental remediation. The Green Army will become Australia's largest ever environmental workforce, building to 15,000 participants by 2018, capable of delivering one and a half thousand on-the-ground environmental projects. This program will provide thousands of young Australians with skills, training and experience to improve their employment prospects through participating in projects that generate real and lasting benefits for the environment and their community. Participants will be making a contribution to the environment and their local community through projects such as restoring and protecting habitat, weeding, planting, cleaning up creeks and rivers and restoring cultural heritage places.

In Dobell the government has committed to three Green Army projects. At the Entrance North beach the Green Army will undertake dune restoration and rehabilitation works, clean-up work will be undertaken on Tuggerah Lakes and environmental enhancement and continuation work will be undertaken at the Central Coast wetlands Pioneer Dairy site. These projects are in addition to our $3.25 million commitment to clean up Tuggerah Lakes through foreshore restoration at Canton Beach and Long Jetty and the renewal and upgrade of gross pollutant traps. I would like to thank the Minister for the Environment, who visited Dobell several times last year to observe how these practical works will deliver real solutions and long-term solutions to our natural environment.