Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Green Army encourages hands-on environmental action while providing paid work and training to thousands of young people around Australia. In my electorate of Petrie there have been two projects completed recently. But I would like to acknowledge the Green Army at North Lakes, which finished up at the end of August. I would like to congratulate them on the hard work and the real environmental difference they have made to the North Lakes Reserve.

In particular, I would like to acknowledge the leader of the group, Alex Collins, who worked with me amongst other people involved in the Mango Hill and North Lakes Environmental Group to develop this project from a very early stage. I would like to acknowledge Charlotte, Mikayla, Penelope, Jasper, Lucy and Luke—part of the team—as well, for the great work that they did.

They cleared the area of foreign vegetation and weeds. They planted hundreds of native trees and shrubs. They installed bird and possum boxes to encourage wildlife and released 500 native freshwater fish to help with mosquito control in the local freshwater ecosystem.

If there are people in the electorate of Petrie who have other great ideas for Green Army projects, let me know. Finally, I would like to thank the minister, Greg Hunt, and his team for all the support they gave the North Lakes Green Army and me during this project. Thank you.