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Green Army Not Expected To Live To Fight Another Day

The Abbott era environmental initiative is set to be axed in the next budget update.
Then Prime Minister Tony Abbott launches the Green Army initiative in August 2014.
AAP Image/ Britta Campion
Then Prime Minister Tony Abbott launches the Green Army initiative in August 2014.

CANBERRA – The Turnbull Government is poised to kill off a key legacy item of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a move which appears to explain the Government's deal with the Greens on the backpacker tax.

The Australian Financial Review reports the troubled Green Army of young (17-24 years) jobseekers "enlisted" to restore the environment is set to be dumped in the December 19 budget update, the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), saving more than $350 million.

Green army members hard at work in the Cataract Gorge
Scott Gelston
Green army members hard at work in the Cataract Gorge

Green Army participants did manual labour such as weeding and clearing creeks in return for half the minimum wage with the government describing it as "training and experience", but the program – which started in mid-2014 - suffered injuries and drop-outs and was criticised for diverting funds from other environmental projects.

The Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg did not rule out the axing on the ABC's AM program.

"We have to find savings across the board," he said.

Malcolm Turnbull refuses to answer questions about axing the Green Army, says we'll find out in MYEFO. pic.twitter.com/shE9sPDeRx

— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) December 5, 2016

It comes just days after the Government side-stepped Labor and crossbench senators to strike a deal with the Greens to find $100 million to fund the environmental volunteer group Landcare over four years for support for a 15 percent backpacker tax.

The office of Greens Leader Richard Di Natale has told the Huffington Post Australia that the Green Army did not come up in negotiations last week, but the Greens are happy to see it go.

"We opposed it from the beginning," a spokesman said.

"It is not an environmental program. It is an employment program, and a bad one at that".

The Opposition is also not wanting to keep the Green Army marching.

Labor's environment spokesman Tony Burke said "The Green Army was never the most effective environmental program".

"This puts the Greens deal for $100 million into Landcare into context."

It does beg the question, where is the other $250 million?

Landcare management has been critical of the Green Army saying it was worthwhile but not without "pitfalls", and its volunteers had been "disenfranchised" by the funding for the rival program.

Power prices, energy security, emissions cuts - and carbon pricing - on the table in climate review https://t.co/UoMQLUBEqg via @smh

— James Massola (@jamesmassola) December 4, 2016

The Environment Minister has defended the Abbott-era program.

"Well the Green Army has been a very successful program of the Coalition," Frydenberg said.

"We've had more than 1,000 projects right around the country whether it is planting 2 million trees as a result of the Green Army or ridding 90,000 hectares of weeds."

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