Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to talk about Labor's very proud tradition of protecting the environment, which many speakers have highlighted. Indeed, it was the Hawke Labor government which moved to protect the Franklin River from being dammed, it was a Labor government that stopped mining in Antarctica and it was a Labor government that knew we must have action on climate change though a carbon pricing scheme. So whilst we can acknowledge that there may be some minor environmental benefits of a program like the Green Army Program, which I was speaking about earlier, it is simply not a long-term response to tackling very complex environmental issues.

There is still grave concern within the community about climate change. During the election campaign the Liberal and National parties were asked about their inaction on climate change. Their response was—and we have heard it here today—'the green army'. That was it. That was all the response they had, no more. It was just: 'the green army; more magic trees.' That was how they approached it, and unfortunately I think that is what a lot of them still feel about it today.

On this side of the House, we have outlined our position to take serious action not just on climate change but on a whole range of very serious environmental issues. We understand how important it is that we do that. We have also outlined our concerns about the need to have effective employment strategies in place. Planting a tree does not train a person; it does not give them skills for future employment. And it certainly does not combat climate change effectively.

This bill really is a reflection of this government's lack of credibility on environmental issues. As I mentioned before, you only have to look at the budget to see some of the really harsh actions of this government: the budget ripped funds from grassroots environmental programs, from CSIRO and from the Bureau of Meteorology as well as from renewable energy initiatives. The budget broke promises not to cut Landcare funding, ripping more than $480 million out of Landcare and conservation programs. It cut $10 million from the Bureau of Meteorology and $2.8 million from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Of course, it also scrapped climate science research programs across government agencies. So, what happened last night was indeed a reflection of the Abbott government's woeful environmental record. It compounded that record and indeed it compounded the cynicism and distrust that exists in the community when it comes to the coalition and any of their environment related programs.

As I have said, right throughout my area we find examples in a whole range of programs. There is a lot of well-founded cynicism in terms of not only the environmental benefits but also the training benefits of this program. In my area, like many regional areas, we have a very high number of unemployed youth. These youth are always wanting decent, accessible training programs, which of course have been severely slashed as of last night. This program does not provide decent, accessible training and nor does it provide protections for participants. Young people looking for training have very little faith in programs like the green army. So whilst in principle parts of the program could potentially be worthwhile, I just do not trust this government to carry it out because of their record of a lack of employment strategies and a lack of environmental policies. They just do not have any of those effective policies at all. We see that across the board—at the state level and with the current federal government.

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