Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in the House today to speak in support of the Social Security Amendment (National Green Jobs Corps Supplement) Bill 2009. This bill will amend the Social Security Act 1991 to provide a training supplement of $41.60 per fortnight to be paid to participants in the federal government’s National Green Jobs Corps training program. Participants eligible for this new supplement will be those young people aged 17 to 24 years who are receiving Newstart allowance, youth allowance (other), or the parenting payment. Participants beginning the program will need to start training between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2011. The supplement will be paid in addition to the allowances already being received by the participants. The supplementary payments will help participants to meet certain costs involved in undertaking Green Jobs Corp placements, such as travel. The regular additional financial support provided by the supplement will also act as an incentive for young people to join the program.

The National Green Jobs Corps supplement is targeted at low-skilled young people including those who have been unemployed for more than 12 months. This program is specifically targeted at those young people who have not completed year 12 schooling. The National Green Jobs Corps will help job participants in a variety of ways. It will develop green skills through 26 weeks, or 130 hours, of accredited training and work experience skills that are needed for the labour market of the future. They will receive a Certificate I or a Certificate II qualification in horticulture, soil conservation and land management. They will work on vital local projects that have significant environmental benefits to communities around Australia.

Young people, especially those who lack skills or qualifications, are among the most vulnerable sectors of the labour market. This is especially the case in periods of global economic downturn, such as Australia has experienced in recent times. I am particularly pleased to be able to speak in support of the National Green Jobs Corp supplement bill. This is because my electorate of Robertson, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, has been one of the regions hardest hit by recent increases in levels of youth unemployment. According to ABS labour force figures, unemployment for the Central Coast region in March 2009 stood at 5.7 per cent. This percentage compares relatively well with the national figure of 6.1 per cent, and even more favourably with the New South Wales figure of seven per cent for March 2009. However, there has been a noticeable spike in youth unemployment across the Central Coast over the past year, which is in sharp contrast. Between October 2008 and July 2009, the proportion of Central Coast youth registered as unemployed jumped from 25.3 per cent—already a tragedy—to 42 per cent. These figures point to the vulnerable position that young people on the Central Coast occupy within the labour market at times of rising unemployment.

Youth unemployment has been a priority of mine since I was elected to represent the people of Robertson. I have taken a keen interest in youth training and skills development on the Central Coast, including the work done in programs such as Hand Brake Turn and Green Corps. These programs provide structured work experience and accredited training for these young people who are struggling to remain engaged with education and training. I have attended several Green Corps graduation ceremonies and I can personally vouch for the significant benefits gained by the participants.

The former Green Corps program was delivered in my electorate by Tony Mylan and Naomi Taifalos and staff from ET Australia located in Gosford. They formed partnerships with the community environment network, local bush care and dune care groups and even the Australian Reptile Park at Somersby, which has been made so famous in recent months with its Tasmanian devil program. Programs such as these provide accredited training that is recognised nationwide and prepare the participants with green skills that are needed for the labour market in the future. But these training places provide much more than just that. The participants I speak to, and there are many of them, tell me of the overwhelming positive outcomes they have achieved through the program. Not only have they met friends, they have gained a new level of self-esteem and a new passion for shared community goals.

Many of the young people who were involved in Green Corps were those who were directionless, who felt they did not participate well at school, who did not feel they were appreciated, who often had never received any award or any achievement in much of their lives. And suddenly, in joining Green Corps and finalising that program, they achieved something that not only they felt pride in, but also their parents, their families and their communities recognised and held in great esteem. They felt they had worked side by side with their colleagues towards a worthy outcome, improving their local environment and strengthening the social and physical fabric of their communities. They had worked very hard over a long 26-week period and really felt proud of their achievements and of themselves. Many of them had been disengaged from education and training and had not worked for long periods of time. The terrible tragedy is that many young people, particularly in that under 21 age group, if they do not enter the workforce and develop skills in those early years, may never or never properly secure employment in the future. This is an extremely important program.

Some of them had also lost meaningful engagement with their families, former schoolmates and friends, because if you are out of work or out of education how do you make contact with them? Some of them had significant personal challenges in relation to other issues. These are all the reasons why I support the National Green Jobs Corps and the supplementary financial support it provides to young people who are at risk of disengagement. It is a formula for skills development and personal growth that I have seen firsthand, and I know that it works. The Green Jobs Corps will help the youth of the Central Coast re-engage with mainstream society and prepare them for further employment in the future. What more admirable outcome can we hope to achieve for our young people? I commend the government for its commitment to them.

This commitment has been clearly demonstrated by the practical measures that the Rudd Labor government has taken to support employment across Australia through the economic stimulus package. Supporting and creating jobs has been one of the national imperatives that has underpinned the whole thrust of the economic stimulus package. This package has already had a positive impact on my electorate. At my latest count, approximately $110 million from the economic stimulus package has been invested directly in the economy of Robertson. This includes more than $81 million allocated under the Building the Education Revolution. The Primary Schools of the 21st Century initiative, a major component of the BER, is transforming all of the 33 primary schools in Robertson, equipping them with new classrooms, multipurpose halls, outdoor learning areas and libraries. The P21 program is directly boosting jobs for tradespeople, contractors and small business people right across the Central Coast.

More than $5 million has been granted to Gosford City Council to begin a massive upgrade of parks, playgrounds and community buildings under the community infrastructure program. Seventy-three social housing units have been built at a cost of $19.6 million, and another 476 have been refurbished as a result of the economic stimulus package. All of this means more jobs for our people on the Central Coast, and particularly more jobs for our young people and of course for the many apprentices who are employed on these sites.

The Jobs Fund is targeted squarely with youth employment in mind. In round 1 of the Jobs Fund, more than $1.8 million has been invested so that the local training organisation, Youth Connections, can establish a green business incubator at Mount Penang Parklands at Kariong, again in my electorate, linked to the local horticulture industry—a new and developing green industry that I very strongly support. This project alone will create or retain 22 jobs, 49 traineeships and 12 work experience places for the young people of the Central Coast.

The Central Coast has been designated a priority employment area and a local employment coordinator has been appointed to oversee the plans. Recently I hosted a Keep Australia Working forum in my electorate, which was attended by scores of local businesses, jobs service providers, government agencies, community groups and registered training organisations. One of the major focuses of that forum was the alarming level of youth unemployment in the region. With 42 per cent of the coast’s youth looking for employment, it is vital that the government’s focus on jobs for young people is maintained and strengthened. Jack Ritchie, the new LEC—local employment coordinator—is hard at work now setting up a committee that will forge a regional employment strategy for the Central Coast. To date, 21 Keep Australia Working forums have been held around Australia. My area is just one of the areas where the government is putting in major resources and work.

Australia has weathered the global economic crisis better than most comparable countries but the challenges facing us over unemployment are still of great concern, particularly amongst our young people. Just to keep the unemployment rate static Australia must create approximately 18,000 jobs every month. It is significant that young people without skills or qualifications are the ones who suffer most in a strained labour market. This is what we are experiencing at the moment and we must safeguard our young people and preserve them as part of the workforce for them and for us in the future.

Nearly two-thirds of job seekers under 21 years currently on the Jobs Australia caseload have not completed a year 12 or equivalent qualification. Of the 169,000 Australians who have lost their jobs in the last 12 months, 35 per cent are young people under the age of 25. Youth unemployment accounts for more than 40 per cent of the increase in unemployment over the last 12 months. Those without year 12 qualifications were massively overrepresented among this group. Lack of qualifications among youth is a significant marker of vulnerability in the labour market. In the recession of the early 1990s, approximately 40 per cent of early schools leavers were not in education or employment six months after leaving school. This alarming rate compared with just 12 per cent among those who had completed high school.

The Rudd Labor government has taken positive action to address the challenges facing our vulnerable youth. Under the ‘earn or learn’ initiative, people under 21 without year 12 qualifications must be involved in education or training to qualify for youth allowance. The National Green Jobs Corps is a means to assist these young people to meet these qualifying requirements. Up to 10,000 of the most vulnerable young people aged between 17 and 24 years will participate in the National Green Jobs Corps over the next two years.

This commitment is part of the Rudd Labor government’s Green Skills program, which will see 50,000 green jobs and training opportunities made available. In addition to the 10,000 places provided under the National Green Jobs Corps program, another 30,000 apprentices will graduate by 2011 with green skills as part of their qualifications. Another 4,000 training opportunities will be made available for home insulation installers. And 6,000 local green jobs will allow unemployed Australians to contribute to environmental sustainability in priority employment areas.

The National Green Jobs Corps will provide work experience and training in bush regeneration, erosion control, beach and dune rehabilitation and habitat protection. Of equal importance is the program’s focus on participants developing community information and education projects. The interactions these young people forge within the wider community are vital to their re-engagement with society and a fuller participation in the social and economic life of their communities. They are also vital to rebuilding self-esteem. The National Green Jobs Corps is another step towards providing this country with real solutions that address our high levels of youth unemployment and is a direct and positive step in that direction.

Job service providers, including Jobs Australia, were consulted at certain stages in the framing of the bill for these new arrangements. As a result the government made a number of changes to the proposal: 17-year-olds were included in the scheme; providers were allowed to promote the National Green Jobs Corps to potential participants; provision was made so that program providers can receive a replacement fee when they replace participants who have exited the program; it was recognised that a participant’s move to a job or to further education after 13 weeks would be treated as completion; and, finally, the arrangements allowed smaller regional organisations to deliver the Green Jobs Corps program as a subcontractor. These changes were all very well received.

Job service providers will begin offering the program from 1 January 2010. It is critical that this bill is passed quickly so that the supplement can be provided to participants from the scheduled beginning of the scheme. The National Green Jobs Corps supplement has been welcomed by many organisations. In July, ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the plan would support young Australians hit hard by the economic slowdown. Heather Ridout of the Australian Industry Group noted that the program would fill gaps in the nation’s green skills capacity. In fact, here I must comment that her twin sister, much to my disturbance when I first met her, is actually the principal of one of our local schools. When I first visited the school and met her I was a bit startled until she explained that she was actually Heather’s identical twin sister. The Australian Conservation Foundation similarly applauded the focus on green jobs.

I am a great supporter of this program and of this bill. Giving additional financial support to 10,000 young Australians while they strengthen their skills base is good news for the employability of the participants and good news for the Australian economy. The training supplement will ease the burden on some our most vulnerable young people and give more Australians the skills they need to re-engage with meaningful employment. I commend the bill to the House.

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