Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I join my colleagues in supporting the Social Security Amendment (National Green Jobs Corps Supplement) Bill 2009. The Rudd Labor government is committed to the environment and to the education and training of young Australians. This bill introduces a new temporary National Green Jobs Corps supplement to assist low-skilled job seekers receiving youth allowance, Newstart allowance or parenting payment when they are undertaking the new youth environmental work experience program, the National Green Jobs Corps. The supplement amounts to an additional $41.60 per fortnight for those participants. The training supplement will be available for people commencing National Green Jobs Corps projects between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2011.

That money, which I am sure will be welcomed by participants, is there to acknowledge the additional costs involved in undertaking the Green Jobs Corps training program—things like special-purpose clothing and travel costs. I hope it also reinforces to participants the importance of the activities and projects they are engaged in, and shows them the value that our communities place on the great work that they will be doing on these Green Jobs Corps projects.

The National Green Jobs Corps complements the government’s Compact with Young Australians, which guarantees a training place to those under the age of 25 who are not employed, to ensure that they have the skills needed for the economic recovery ahead of us. The majority of the participants, when they complete the program, will have attained a certificate II qualification. This is also consistent with the Compact with Young Australians, where job seekers aged under 20 without year 12 qualifications will be encouraged to attain either a year 12 certificate or an equivalent qualification.

As we well know, for the last year the Australian economy has had the dark cloud of the global financial crisis and subsequent recession hanging over it. The Rudd government did not wait to see how severe the storm might be or how long it might take to travel from other major economies like the US before it hit our shores. Instead we acted quickly, based on the lessons of previous economic downturns.

One of the major lessons that came out of the recession of the early nineties was that young people are the first and the hardest hit by rising unemployment as soon as the economy starts to contract. That has been confirmed in the latest downturn, with employment for 15- to 24-year-olds falling by almost 100,000 between August 2008 and August 2009. There has been a corresponding rise in unemployment in those age groups—up to 7.9 per cent for 20- to 24-year-olds in August 2009 and 17.6 per cent for those aged between 15 and 19. We also learned in the nineties that young people are the ones with the greatest opportunity, in a shrinking jobs market, to respond by seeking to improve their skills as a way of bettering their employment prospects.

With this in mind, the government have put a number of initiatives in place to support young people while the economy is still reacting to the global recession and local downturn. We also see this as having long-term benefits as we encourage young people to take opportunities to increase their skills and qualifications to prepare themselves and the nation for the recovery that is already showing signs of picking up pace—a recovery that will present a whole new set of challenges and opportunities as, one way or another, we head into an era of energy and water efficiency, carbon emission reduction and environmental regeneration.

As I mentioned earlier, the government’s overarching response to the challenge of skilling young Australians and providing them with the means to a brighter future is through the Compact with Young Australians. The compact requires young people to complete year 10 and then be in full-time education, training or employment until the age of 17—‘learn or earn’, as it has been known in Queensland for quite a few years now. For our part, the government will offer a training entitlement to all 15- to 24-year-olds. We are also working with the state governments to provide improved support through career advice and better assistance with the transition through school to further training and work. I will return to that initiative a bit later on.

On top of those initiatives, in July this year the Prime Minister announced the creation of 50,000 new green jobs and training places. The National Green Jobs Corps is part of this package of measures designed to give young Australians the opportunity to develop new skills and start on the path to long-term jobs—long-term jobs in the emerging industries of the future. The National Green Jobs Corps gives young unemployed people the opportunity to contribute to their community and build their skills through participating in an environmental work experience and training program. The National Green Jobs Corps provides environmental work experience and training places for young Australians aged 17 to 24 who care about the environment and have an interest in developing skills to work in green industries.

The objectives of the Green Jobs Corps are: to help equip young Australians with the skills to fill employment opportunities in emerging green and climate change related industries, particularly where there is an urgent need for work to avoid damage to environmental or heritage assets, and improve our readiness for the impact of climate change; to provide young Australians with work experience and training opportunities in structured projects that focus on the conservation, protection and rejuvenation of Australia’s natural environment, and the restoration of cultural heritage; to promote connections between young Australians and the community; and to provide personal development, including teamwork and leadership skills and job preparation skills.

As I said, a total of 10,000 places will be made available over the period 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2011. As a place may have more than one person fill the place over time, it is expected that more than 10,000 young people will participate in the National Green Jobs Corps over the life of the program. The National Green Jobs Corps supplement, which we are discussing and debating today, is designed to support young low-skilled participants undertaking National Green Jobs Corps in recognition of the costs that they may incur as a result of their participation. It is an important incentive for young people to participate in the program.

There is no doubt that there is demand for these kinds of training opportunities in my electorate. An example of this was when I congratulated eight Australian government Green Corps participants earlier this year when they completed a 26-week environmental restoration project at the foreshore area of Murray Lagoon on the edge of Rockhampton. This project gave the participants valuable experience in environmental restoration work. They worked at sites, not just at Murray Lagoon in the botanical gardens but also the bush tucker garden at the Yeppoon State School. Their work included planting and regeneration of native vegetation, site review and monitoring, water quality testing, weed control, building and installation of bird hides and viewing areas, and planning of community training days.

The team, managed by Job Futures Ltd, has worked in partnership with community organisations, with Fitzroy River and Coastal Catchments staff, and they have also received terrific support from the Rockhampton Regional Council. This partnership between the community and government has been the key ingredient to the success of the Green Corps projects that have been happening across Australia for some years and will continue to be at the heart of the National Green Jobs Corps into the future.

I have spoken in here before about the work that took place at Murray Lagoon and what an asset the lagoon is to Rockhampton and how proud participants in the Green Corps project can be of what they have given to our community. They have enhanced amenity of that area in a beautiful way and they have really contributed greatly to enhancing the accessibility of that area and the environmental values.

In another great project, Conservation Volunteers Australia and the government worked in partnership with the community on the rehabilitation of the Sarina Catchment Green Corps Project in the north of my electorate. The project could not have succeeded the way it did without the terrific support and involvement of the Sarina Landcare Catchment Management Association. This worthwhile project helped to contribute to the protection and restoration of Sarina’s beautiful beaches and to increase community awareness of Sarina’s natural environment. The purpose of this project was to implement onground works to rehabilitate, protect and enhance areas of significant environmental value as well as to increase community awareness in relation to the natural resources of the area. Some of the activities included: natural area restoration including site preparation, revegetation and integrated weed control; propagation of native plants, plant identification, seed collection, cleaning and propagation and general nursery activities; fencing construction, bollarding and stock fencing; track maintenance; coastal monitoring including dune profile, groundcover, vegetation assessments and installation of interpretive signage.

I have inspected and celebrated the work of the team doing the work to restore Sarina’s beaches on a number of occasions now and those participants and the organisations that supported the project can be very proud of what they have achieved. I know that they have had a number of opportunities for the community to express its gratitude to them as well.

In closing, the National Green Jobs Corps will enable young Australians to develop the green skills and experience needed for jobs in the future. This bill is targeted at the young Australians most vulnerable in the current economic environment, especially those who have not obtained a year 12 or equivalent qualification. This bill will provide work experience and training on projects such as: bush regeneration, erosion control, developing community information and education projects, beach and dune rehabilitation, and habitat protection. These projects will make environmental improvements now and help develop green skills that will be increasingly needed in the labour market of the future. This bill will assist those young Australians with an opportunity to participate in learning and education. It will help those young Australians who want to choose employment in the jobs of the future, the green jobs that we have heard so much about today.

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