Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will tell you what I know. I travel around my electorate. I speak to lots of young people in my electorate in Colac, in Belmont and in the federal electorate of Corio. I can see the impact that this is having on young people. Through this scheme we are valuing young people. We are helping to build pride, we are helping to give them skills because for so many people, under the previous federal government, they sat there day without a job! This is a scheme that is positive, this is a scheme that we are proud of.

The Green Army will make a real difference to the environment and to the local communities in my electorate. As I mentioned, it will be a 15,000-strong Green Army by 2018—the largest standing environmental workforce in Australia's history. It will recruit local people aged 17 to 24 to give them the hands-on experience, the skills, the training to boost their employment prospects. Up to nine eligible participants will work on one project with at least one team supervisor. It is a very substantial commitment of $300 million over four years. The government will provide an additional $222 million in 2017-18 and $289 million in 2018-19.

In my electorate of Corangamite, we are very excited by four Green Army projects that were announced prior to the election—in Lorne, in Apollo Bay, in Colac and in Queenscliff. The project in Queenscliff is a really good example of why members opposite have got this so wrong. This is not about replacing people in work; this is about creating new opportunities. In Queenscliff there is a real problem with the foreshore. The local council could not get funding, so we have committed the money required to completely rejuvenate the foreshore and to build a boardwalk. In fact it was such a problem that a local, Alistair Lang, who runs the local IGA, started a petition and raised 1,000 signatures in his supermarket. People were so upset about the state of the foreshore and I really do commend the work of Alistair Lang and the many others who joined forces to say, 'We want some action'. We are delivering.

I also want to commend the Borough of Queenscliff, who has worked so hard to pull together plans to rejuvenate the foreshore as well as the Bellarine Catchment Network and the Swan Bay Environment Network. Queenscliff is a wonderful historic town with so much to offer and the rejuvenation of their foreshore will make an enormous difference. Also, in Lorne, there will be a major project at the Lorne St George River tramway track to the west of Point Grey. Before reliable road transport emerged in the 1930s, it was an extensive tramway network which enabled heavy loads to be— (Time expired)

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