House debates

Thursday, 15 May 2014

Bills

Social Security Legislation Amendment (Green Army Programme) Bill 2014; Second Reading

9:37 am

Photo of Greg HuntGreg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

Let me also begin by thanking the member for Grey. That is a very powerful story in relation to a community event, with a community impact and an impact on the landscape. He sets out precisely the sort of work which Green Army teams could hope to do in the future—land rehabilitation and land recovery—and, in so doing, provide support for communities and support for the way in which we can provide jobs, opportunity, training and community and environmental benefit. I cannot think of a better exemplar of the way in which a Green Army team should be developed, should operate and should work than the one which the member for Grey has set out. We are focused entirely on good outcomes for the community and good outcomes for the environment, whether it is land rehabilitation, whether it is riparian recovery, whether it is sand dune restoration or whether it is replanting of native species. A particular personal and policy focus of mine is the encouragement of areas for threatened species recovery. These are all worthy goals—all with a strong history of a very successful program in the previous Green Corps and that also deal with emissions reduction. So it ticks all the boxes with all of these things—emissions reduction—

Comments

No comments