John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I enjoyed hearing the member for Forrest talking about what will work in her electorate, and she is quite right. As somebody who had a lot to do with the old Green Corps program, I have no doubt that this is going down the right track. Nobody—neither my best friend nor my worst enemy—would ever accuse me of being a greenie, though I am a person of common sense. Looking after land, teaching people how to fence and what to weed and how to get rid of it, all that is common sense. This program will look after land around towns in the main, and that again is common sense. The Social Security Legislation Amendment (Green Army Programme) Bill was, as we heard from this side of the House, a key commitment by our government during the election. It will be a great program. It will put together the largest environmental workforce to deliver projects to the tune of 15,000 participants over the next six years. I hope it closely replicates what happened with the Green Corps. From the other side we have heard some falsehoods, which I will come back to.

I would like to talk a little about what we committed to in Calare during the election and which will take effect from July. Last August I joined with local councils to announce six projects for Calare, including three for the Bathurst Regional Council area, and one each for Blayney, Carbonne and Orange. That represents around $1 million direct funding for Calare with local projects that have been identified by groups and councils. It includes things like cleaning up river banks, creek beds, regenerating remnant vegetation, fencing off areas, clearing up rubbish and weeds—weeds in particular are a huge issue throughout Australia—looking after habitat and controlling pest animals. Pest animal control is a big issue and habitat care—that will please the greenies—is another big issue. We have more than our share of pest animals.

The Green Army Program will target the Blayney Road Common, Mount Panorama precinct, Molong Creek, Boree Creek, Mandagery Creek and Belubula River; creek lines at Dakers Oval, Blayney; Pound Flat, Carcoar and Mandurama Ponds; and the Ploughmans Wetlands and Gosling Creek Reserve precinct. The program will help not only sites around Calare but also local young people who will join the Green Army, get training and skills and learn to work as part of a team. It will commence on 1 July and there will be 250 teams in the first year.

This will depend, as the success of Green Corps did, on having down-to-earth, experienced men who have been involved in agriculture and other things to oversee this. It does not take someone out of university with a wealth of degrees; it takes someone who cares and is good with kids, particularly. Quite often for those kids it will be the first job they have ever had. I assume that in this case that will be the norm. This program will teach them to work as part of a team. It will teach them to work with someone who is good with their hands, experienced, knowledgeable and caring. Those were the kinds of guys we had to oversee Green Corps. It requires a lot of cooperation from councils, in particular, as well as the right person to oversee and lead the team. The feedback I have received in Calare has been overwhelmingly positive for the reasons I have mentioned. It will provide meaningful work for young people and teach them skills. Hopefully, they will gather skills that they will be able to use to make it easier for them to find a job and be part of a team.

I was somewhat disappointed, to be blunt, to find a rather disturbing letter in one of my local newspapers written by an employee of the legal firm Slater & Gordon. I am sure some of you have heard of Slater & Gordon; it has become quite famous—or maybe infamous—in the last couple of years for reasons I will not go into now. Slater & Gordon claimed in the letter that Green Army participants would not be covered by any workers' compensation scheme. Further, the letter went on to say that young workers risk suffering a serious injury which might mean they do not return to work. This is a load of rubbish. It could not be further from the truth. It was disappointing, although perhaps not surprising, that Slater & Gordon did not take the time to get the facts on the program right. I obviously wrote to the paper to correct the record. I pointed out that the health and safety of participants engaged in the program will remain governed by relevant state statutes, regulations, by-laws and requirements in work health and safety laws. I cannot believe it was ever suggested they would not. However, perhaps Slater & Gordon had other reasons for making those utterances.

Further, insurance will be required to be held by all relevant parties. I note that the Commonwealth will also take out personal accident and public liability insurance for Green Army participants. So I am not quite sure where Slater & Gordon were coming from. This is an important point: if a participant is injured, if such a thing should happen while they are involved in a Green Army project, medical costs incurred that are not covered by Medicare will be covered by personal accident insurance to the maximum benefit payable. Participants will continue to be paid their allowance if they require time off from their placement as a result of their injury, in line with the personal leave provisions provided under the Green Army Program.

It was also claimed that participants will be underpaid for the work they do in the Green Army. Again, that is completely untrue. The rate of pay for Green Army participants is significantly higher than the rate they would get on Newstart. Pay rates for the Green Army allowance align with the national training wage. They range from $608.40 to $987 per fortnight, depending on a participant's age and educational level. The pay rate is significantly higher than Newstart, which ranges between $450 and $690 per fortnight, and youth allowance, which ranges from $226.80 to $690 per fortnight. You would think that a legal firm like Slater & Gordon, who specialise, as I understand it, in industrial relations and the Labor Party, would have those figures right at their fingertips. It is an extraordinary thing for them to accuse the government of.

Green Corps was a great program, and I am sure this will be too. It will be great for young people who have left school at whatever age and are not sure what they want to do. They will be able to work as part of a team with a mature, experienced person who will be able to teach them. The help and engagement of councils is absolutely imperative. I know they will be involved. They were in the past and they will be again. I commend the bill to the House because, from my experience, I believe this will be a great program.

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