Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Green Army Programme) Bill 2014, which resurrects and expands on the Howard years' Green Corps, which was an outstanding program proving time and time again to be a great opportunity for young people, especially those about to enter the workforce. It gave them a sense of belonging in the community, as well as having positive environmental outcomes. Unfortunately, under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments, the successful Green Corps program was replaced with the National Green Jobs Corps, which effectively reclassified unemployed people, who continued to receive an income support payment, and was then abolished altogether.

Over the life of the Green Corps program, participants propagated and planted more than 14 million trees, erected more than 8,000 kilometres of fencing, cleared more than 50,000 hectares of weeds, collected more than 9,500 kilograms of seeds and constructed and maintained more than 5,000 kilometres of walking tracks and boardwalks. I am proud that the coalition government will not follow the way of the previous government, which repealed a program that helped to develop the skills of young people, helped communities to take responsibility for their local patch and helped to directly fix or mitigate local environment issues. Indeed, it was a program that actually worked. No wonder Labor did away with it! It was a program that actually worked—in stark contrast to the Labor government's extensive list of failures.

On this side of the chamber, we are creating a standing Green Army, which will gradually build to a 15,000-strong environmental workforce. This will provide real and practical solutions to cleaning up riverbanks and creek beds, revegetating sand dunes, revegetating mangrove habitat, and a host of other environmental conservation projects. The Green Army will work with, and complement the work undertaken by, local and care groups, bush care groups, foreshore communities, natural resource management groups, local catchment authorities and councils in their work restoring and protecting the local environment. This will be particularly beneficial in my electorate as Ryan is home to part of Brisbane River, which is facing issues of sedimentation and bank degradation, and we also have Mount Coot-tha and its surrounding national parks and forests, Mount Crosby, parts of Mount Nebo, Walkabout Creek and the Enoggera Dam.

When the Minister for the Environment visited my electorate before the last election, to launch the Ryan Green Army Program, I was pleased to see such a strong turnout from local environmental groups and interested members of the community—all coming together united by their interest in and dedication to caring for our environment. Mount Coot-tha is a popular bushland destination for many people from all over Brisbane. It includes the Brisbane Botanic Gardens and Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, as well as a mountain drive, bike tracks, walking trails and parks. There are several popular walking tracks around Mount Coot-tha, with most involving some uphill sections or steps. These tracks are often used by hikers training to walk the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea as the terrain and climate are considered similar.

Recently I attended a neighbourhood planning forum, hosted by Premier Newman, for The Gap community works, including upgrades to Walkabout Creek in my electorate. The upgrades would give residents better access to the Enoggera Dam, allowing for kayaking and other water sports; an expansion of the Walkabout Creek centre, making it a community hub, with animal enclosures, educational sessions and a treetop boardwalk; and the creation of new walking tracks, high ropes courses and infrastructure for local scouts and guides groups. The scouting movement have expressed their desire to see this work carried out as it would mean a new area to train groups in outdoor exploration. Community leaders have found that there is a missing stepping stone between teaching scout groups the theory of outdoor exploration, camping and bushwalking, and then going and having an adventure in national bushland. These new upgrades will fill that gap, enabling young adventure groups to ease into the more difficult outdoor exploration.

Walkabout Park, part of the larger nature reserve lying on the western boundary of Brisbane, in the Enoggera Reservoir, is home to many rare native plants and animals. It was evident at the neighbourhood family meeting, with more than 100 people turning up on a Sunday morning to discuss upgrades in their local environment, that the national park is of huge significance to the local community. There were representatives from some of the many community green groups in the area, who work on local waterways, rehabilitation, weed eradication and the protection of local endangered species.

I am delighted to stand in this place legislating for a stronger, more lasting version of the former Green Corps by way of the coalition government's Green Army. My office has already received a number of Green Army grant applications, and I look forward to seeing the army grow and develop within my electorate. The electorate of Ryan is home to the University of Queensland, one of the leading research universities in the Southern Hemisphere. The researchers at University of Queensland are investigating a range of projects to protect and rehabilitate the environment, and to create a more sustainable way of living. I have previously spoken in this place about the work of Professor Ben Hankamer at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience on using genetically modified algae to rehabilitate creeks and waterways that have been affected by the nutrient run-off from farms or from the waste created by mine sites.

The University of Queensland is preparing the future of the hydrogen economy by looking at ways to sustainably produce hydrogen from genetically modified hydrogen, and on more efficient hydrogen fuel cells, to eventually replace our dependence on fossil fuels. There is also research into increasing the efficiency of traditional solar panels, as well as manufacturing lighter and more flexible and transportable solar panels. These new solar strips could be used along skirting boards and around windows in office buildings to capture light to reduce the energy demands of the building. There is a great deal of research in these fields not just at the University of Queensland but also internationally. However, in most cases the research is exactly that, research, and is not quite viable for mass production or mass implementation yet. Until such a time as the research becomes a viable alternative to our current practice, direct action from community groups to better their local environment is one of our best options.

When local community members work together to solve a problem, the sky is the limit. I would like to give special mention to some of the many green groups in my electorate and highlight all the good work they do: Save Our Waterways Now, Kenmore Transition Town, Yarrabee Road Bushcare Group, Barnett Road Bushcare Group, Men of the Trees, Freer's Farm Bushcare Group, Ferny Grove Transition Town, Glen Harding Park Bushcare Group, Toowong Creek Roving Rehabilitators, Birds Queensland, Protect Long Pocket Action Group, St Lucia Esplanade Bushcare Group, Indooroopilly Woods Residents Group, Moore Park Bushcare Group, Taringa Parade Bushcare Group, Rainbow Forest Experimental Rehabilitation Group, Brookfield Showground Bushcare Group, Brushbox Bushcare Group, Merri Merri Park Bushcare Park, Cubberla Creek Revegetation Group, Kimba Street Bushcare Group, Greenhill Regenerators, Wandering Weeders, Mandalay Progress Association, Manaton Park Bushcare Group, Manaton Habitat Group, McKay Brook Bushcare Group, Pullen Pullen Catchments Group, Guardians of Little Gubberley, Gap Creek Bushcare Group, Cubberla-Witton Catchment Network, Huntington Bushcare Group, Rural Environmental Planning Association, Upper Gold Creek Bushcare Group, Upper Brookfield Bush Regeneration, Anstead Park Bushcare Group, Moggill Creek Catchment Group, Lions Nature Trail Bushcare Group and my local group, The Hut Environmental and Community Association. All these groups will benefit from the Green Army Program and I look forward to working with them in the future.

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