Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

It is remarkable that we are here in the Senate today debating the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Green Army Programme) Bill 2014, which delivers for the environment, delivers for young Australians and yet we have opposition from no less than the Australian Greens. It is of course an important package and it is an important delivery of an election promise that the coalition made. It is important that we achieve this and achieve the benefits it will deliver for local environmental projects and the opportunities for many young Australians.

The Green Army is a key coalition election commitment. We committed some $525 million to this project over four years, a scale of commitment and funding that I would have thought would have been welcomed by all around this chamber.

It will commence from July this year. The Green Army will generate real benefits for the Australian environment and will give young Australians, aged between 17 and 24, the opportunity to gain training and experience in both environmental and heritage projects in delivering those projects on the ground.

This bill provides a framework for the operation of the Green Army scheme. It provides certain specifics around how it will interact in particular with social security arrangements. It specifies that participants in the Green Army scheme cannot also get social security payments or benefits; that participants are not considered employees for the purposes of Commonwealth laws; and that income-testing arrangements, where a partner receives social security payments or benefits, are duly adjusted to take account of their participation in the Green Army arrangement.

This is important because the Green Army will ultimately be a very large program involving a large number of young Australians. In fact, it will become Australia's largest ever team supporting environmental action across the country, building to some 15,000 young Australians, aged between 17 and 24, by 2018. These young Australians will work as small teams, supporting practical, grassroots environmental and heritage conservation projects across urban, regional and remote Australia.

Delivery of the Green Army project is well underway, as evidenced of course not only by this legislation but also by request tenders for service providers that opened on 31 March and closed on 7 May, as well as the opportunities that people have had to comment on the selection guidelines to ensure that this is indeed a rigorous process that delivers for both the environment and young Australians.

From July this year, 250 Green Army projects will be established in the first year of operation. This will provide work experience and training to around 2½ thousand participants in that first year of operation. These young people will work around 30 hours per week. They will be paid wages commensurate with a minimum trainee wage. A minimum trainee hourly wage for a 21-year-old, for example, ranges from between $14.76 and $16.45 per hour, as well as a fortnightly allowance, recognising the nature of the work and training that they will be doing, of between $885 and $987.

In delivering the Green Army, our government are delivering on an election commitment taken to both the 2010 and 2013 elections. Pleasingly, in the lead-up to the 2013 election, more than 150 projects were announced and committed to by the government. I was pleased to have been there both initially in the Sydney harbourside suburbs, with the now Prime Minister and now Minister for the Environment, for the announcement of the Green Army policy in the 2013 election, and later to announce and support many different projects during that campaign. These projects that we committed to pre election will be rolled out as a priority from July this year.

In our home state of South Australia, Madam Acting Deputy President Ruston, one of these projects is within the Mount Laura Conservation Park, which is aimed at protecting the natural environment of the conservation reserve from soil erosion, stormwater damage and unauthorised access from random off-road vehicles. You can see the type of practical work that is envisaged from these projects that will give real experience to young people on the ground, as well as delivering tangible and practical benefits to the local environment and to environs such as the Mount Laura Conservation Park.

I was pleased to join the member for Longman, Wyatt Roy, during the campaign at Burpengary Creek to announce the major riparian repair and boardwalk project that will be funded and built as part of the Green Army operations along the fringe of that creek

The work at this site will involve the removal of lantana and other pest flora, invasive species that harm the operation of the creek and other native species in that area. It will support the revegetation of 100,000 native trees and shrub plantings, in what is a beautiful part of Queensland that I would encourage many people to visit.

Up in the Northern Territory, Green Army projects will include: the eradication of Gamba grass in the Greater Darwin area; Rapid Creek and Mitchell Creek conservation projects; and a 'toadbuster team', which will see strategic fencing placed in and around water sources to prevent cane toad access to water and try to stymie the growth of the cane toad population in the Northern Territory. These are once again, truly practical measures that will deliver real benefit to the local environment in these communities.

The Green Army will make a significant difference to local environs, to our overall environment, to the management and support of threatened species and of course to the environment for local communities, through projects that include: propagation and planting of native seedlings; weed control; revegetation and regeneration of local parks; habitat protection and restoration; and creek bank restoration.

The Green Army is building on the Howard government's successful Green Corps program, established in 1996 to employ young people in environmental projects similar to this to preserve and restore our natural and cultural environment. That is a program that is still fondly spoken of by many of those who participated in it; many of whom have gone on to a lifetime of volunteerism or work supporting local environmental activity.

Participants will be eligible to receive an allowance and will have the opportunity to gain certificate I or certificate II qualifications in a range of areas—including, land management, park management, landscaping or horticulture. At the same time as improving the local environment and providing opportunities, the Green Army will foster volunteerism, teamwork, local ownership and community spirit in all of the areas of its operation.

I commend this bill to the Senate as I commend the Green Army program to all Australians. I look forward to seeing its exciting delivery over the years ahead. It will see tens of thousands of young Australians given an opportunity to give to our environment.