Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister for the Environment. With another Green Army project winding up successfully in my electorate of Hume, could the minister outline how the government is supporting a range of initiatives to combat global warming and improve the environment in local communities?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member of the Hume, who is a great Green Army ambassador. In his own electorate I think there have been, or are underway, nine Green Army projects. He is one of the most practical people in this House in terms of the amount of time he has spent with groups in his electorate, doing real work to improve pathways, to remove invasive species, to rehabilitate land—to do all of these different things. Amongst those nine projects is included the Greenways project. The Greenways project has been working on pathways and ensuring that we have local community groups involved.

We have also seen the Yass Gorge rehabilitation project, which has had a very significant Indigenous participation. I met some of them, and they talked about the member of Hume's work, but he has talked about their work. One of the Indigenous participants told me something very significant. He said, 'You know, I hadn't worked for some years and I was looked down upon by some of the elders in my community, but they've seen me with the uniform and they've seen me clearing away invasive species. They've seen the work that we're doing on fencing, on path rehabilitation and other practical initiatives. One of the proudest moments since I left school was when one of the elders said to me, "I am proud of you and your work". It was the first time I'd had an elder in my community make that point to me.'

What does the Green Army mean? It means that we are giving young people, who might otherwise not have had an opportunity, the ability to work, the ability to help the environment and the ability to be back in the field. These things are real and important. So we are opening up opportunities, we are giving them a chance to help with the environment and we are helping to improve the environment around Australia.

I would just give this update: today we have announced that the number of Green Army teams in the field or completed has passed the 500 mark. We are at 508 Green Army teams; we are ahead of schedule. We are delivering what we said we would do; we are doing it in advance of when we said we would do it; and we are doing it in a way that is giving many young people the opportunity, either for the first time or the first time in some years, to enter the workforce, to have dignity and to win the respect of their community.