Update on the Green Army programme
Posted on 20 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
On 2 August 2014, the Federal Government announced that the Green Army is ‘open for business‘. Successful Project Sponsors were announced, as were the successful applicants to become Service Providers. They have also put a call out for young people (aged 17 to 24) to join a Green Army team. The details are available on the Green Army website (click here).
Connecting Country shared community concerns about some elements of the Green Army program and decided not to seek funding in the first round but will instead wait and see how the program develops.
Some of the projects announced in Round 1 are in the North Central catchment area (click here to see the full list). The nearest to the Mount Alexander Region is the Bald Hill Conservation Project near Kyneton (with the Macedon Ranges Shire Council being the project sponsor).
I’d rather be doing some ecological work out in Nature, than be sitting around waiting for the “perfect” job opportunity to arise! Its all a matter of how you view it Karl, communing with Mother Earth, or exploitation by bad humans!
It is fantastic that all these groups have received funding, and it will undoubtedly have a significantly positive impact in many areas, but the green army process is a farce. The Green Army is supposed to be the government’s method for tackling climate change but here we see projects like track construction, fauna monitoring and weed control that apparently are somehow going to reduce emissions. We need real and serious efforts to combat climate change, but this project is about diverting attention from the big polluters and protecting their interests. The young adults employed are also going to be shamefully exploited and paid less than half the minimum wage. Shame on the Abbott government.