Page 1385 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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The Greens have been very pleased to be able to work with the ACT government over the past few months to identify those gaps and support members of our community who needed it. We have created employment opportunities for people who were ineligible for the federal assistance schemes. The jobs for Canberrans and screwdriver-ready project schemes have been very successful in employing people who have relied on casual work and are not eligible for the Australian government’s wage subsidy scheme or other support mechanisms.
I understand that at this stage already almost 200 people are employed by the jobs for Canberrans program, delivering positions like rangers, including Indigenous rangers, city services staff, roads program workers, communications and IT roles and administrative roles. Another 250 people will be employed in coming weeks, based on the projections of further rollout.
I am glad to report that three-quarters of the jobs have gone to tier 1 applicants—that is, people who are completely ineligible for any federal government support, such as international students who found themselves here when COVID struck, and provisional work visa holders. The other quarter of these positions have employed tier 2 people—that is, those who are ineligible for both JobSeeker and JobKeeper.
This means that 200 people in Canberra who would have otherwise be both unemployed and ineligible for any government funding over the past few months have been able to gain employment to give their life stability through this difficult period, or at least as much as possible.
The government has also committed over $25 million to screwdriver-ready projects being rolled out this financial year to create local jobs, while also ensuring that we are able to deliver the hundreds of smaller infrastructure projects our community has been calling for over time. I am sure all members of the Assembly will have seen things being fixed or upgraded in their local communities, whether it is local school buildings, cycling and walking path upgrades, solar PV installation on social housing or energy efficiency work at swimming pools. These are really practical projects across our community.
The Greens have been focused on ensuring that while we are creating these extra jobs we are also addressing our long-term climate challenges, with active travel support and energy efficiency programs and pieces of work. These projects are supporting our community through these challenging times by creating over a thousand jobs since April and improving our infrastructure while we are at it, which we will be able to enjoy for decades to come. We have been able to work with government to ensure that long-term priorities, such as additional tree planting and Namadgi restoration have also been able to be undertaken with these funds. The government has been very focused on delivering these project and there are at least $10 million more of these projects to come in the next financial year.
As Minister for Mental Health, I have been working hard with the Health Directorate and Canberra Health Services on how we can help the community to keep as mentally healthy as possible. We know that Canberra Health Services and a range of
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