Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tony Abbott's Green Army is 15,000 strong, composed of 17- to 24-year-old people looking for an opportunity. We are just about to finish our first project in Townsville, which is cleaning up the beautiful Booroona Trail along the banks of the Ross River. The people who have been in that program have been energised. They are people with university educations, people who just want a go and people who have moved from Tully and from Charters Towers to be part of this so they can get that opportunity.

It is about breaking the cycle of being unemployed and disengaged. That is the hard part for young people and it is very tough out there at the moment. My electorate has a current unemployment rate of 7.7 per cent. You know in your heart of hearts that the rate of unemployment of our young people is at least triple that. It is very hard to get a start when everyone wants experience. It is very tough for our young people trying to fill out a job application, trying to prove a work ethic and trying to prove that they can do something when they cannot get that experience. It is a catch 22, where they cannot get the experience because they cannot get a job but they cannot get a job because they do not have the experience. It is a frustration that the guys who are working on this have told me about. They have done their courses at university; they have worked very hard but they still cannot do it. They are prepared to do anything. They will wash a truck even though they have a degree in accountancy or something like that.

We have announced our second project, which is cleaning up the banks of Stoney Creek and Saunders Creek which are part of the Bohle River catchment. Sue Blom, a local councillor, has been on about this project for a long time. It is important to also understand that the Green Army does not take work away from other people. It does not take away work that council would be doing. This is stuff that council would not be entertaining. This is extra. It is a way of saying, 'I did something.'

We also have an issue with senior unemployment and underemployment. It seems to me that you have a catch 22 where young people cannot get a start and the older people cannot get a run. This is for conflicting reasons. The hard part is giving these people a go. I am very proud that I am the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment. We have just announced a new inquiry. The committee will:

… inquire into and report on matters that inhibit or discourage job-creation and employment by private sector small businesses and/or provide disincentives to individuals from working for such businesses.

This includes a number of terms of references.

The good part about this is it lets us talk to people who are not from an English-speaking background, people with a disability, people who just want that opportunity and people who just need that start; and it lets us be able to clear the decks so that we can feed this into the taxation white paper and the Federation white paper. I am very energised by this and I want this to be a success.