Abbott reduces offer for his 'green army'      :(

    by: DAVID CROWE
    From: The Australian
    July 06, 2013

   

TONY Abbott has scaled down one of his flagship policies to cut $100 million from the cost of hiring a "green army" to work on hundreds of conservation projects if he wins power at the coming election.    

The cut means a Coalition government would pay school leavers and students only about $14.50 an hour to do the work -- far less than the $50,000 annual pay the Opposition Leader envisioned when he raised the idea three years ago.      :(

Mr Abbott pledged yesterday to set up a force of 15,000 young workers funded by Canberra to fix local environmental problems by working on projects such as revegetating sand dunes and river-bed remediation.

The plan cements an idea Mr Abbott put forward in 2010 to highlight his environmental credentials as he attacked Labor's carbon pricing scheme, but yesterday's policy details mark a significant adjustment to the original vision.

The new policy is based on an hourly rate of $14.50 for young people working only part of the year, enough to earn about $11,000.


The adjustment ensures the scheme can mobilise as many as 2500 people at 250 projects in the first year while meeting a strict limit on how much can be spent.

"The green army will march to the rescue of our degraded land and polluted waterways," the Opposition Leader said as he announced the new policy in Sydney yesterday.

Mr Abbott went to the 2010 election promising to spend $400m on the scheme in its first four years but adjusted that to $300m.

The scheme is an "opt-in" program for those aged from 17 to 24 and intended mainly for school leavers and students who could use the work to gain credits toward technical courses.

What happened to the $50,000 a year Mr Abbott?.     :(

Its like I said, Tony Abbott is a scientific illiterate who believes in robbing the kids of their future.

It would make more sense just to give the funding to all the volunteer groups that already do this work instead of playing political games with the money.

$14.50 an hour? Rubbish, just wait until after the election, then it'll be the unemployed and pensioners doing it for free.

The ideas right, its just the wrong party pushing it, if Rudd thought of it you'd all be clapping and cheering  ;D

Innocent bystander wrote on Jul 6^th, 2013 at 9:21am:

The ideas right, its just the wrong party pushing it, if Rudd thought of it you'd all be clapping and cheering  ;D

If Rudd had thought of it you'd be complaining

Mr Abbott Reduces Offer For His Green Army

Libs like nothing better than to cut pay rates.

Tony probably over quoted just so he could have the pleasure of cutting it back later.

Innocent bystander wrote on Jul 6^th, 2013 at 9:21am:

The ideas right, its just the wrong party pushing it, if Rudd thought of it you'd all be clapping and cheering  ;D

Its not a good idea from anyone - what is the minimum wage?

SOB

http://spotofborg.com/files/persecution5.jpg

Innocent bystander wrote on Jul 6^th, 2013 at 9:21am:

The ideas right, its just the wrong party pushing it, if Rudd thought of it you'd all be clapping and cheering

It's not a bad idea just not the major plank of climate control.

Organising a group of underpaid untrained kids to do environmental work in the community and paying hundreds of millions???

This is the meat of a major policy - WTF !

$14.50 Hr. - you get what you pay for, looks like they expect little.

John Smith wrote on Jul 6^th, 2013 at 9:26am:

If Rudd had thought of it you'd be complaining

The kind of ideas Rudd comes up with get young people killed.

John Smith wrote on Jul 6^th, 2013 at 9:19am:

$14.50 an hour? Rubbish, just wait until after the election, then it'll be the unemployed and pensioners doing it for free.

Disability pensioners and the unemployed doing it as part of his "work for the dole" initiative. The Tony mantra......send them to the army, the mine pits (that's out now) and the sand dunes, anything but create real jobs for real wages. I thought slavery was abolished. The union movement was formed for this very reason.

Innocent bystander wrote on Jul 6^th, 2013 at 9:33am:

John Smith wrote on Jul 6th, 2013 at 9:26am: If Rudd had thought of it you'd be complaining The kind of ideas Rudd comes up with get young people killed.

you mean like declaring war on another country?

Do I sense a new slogan?
"The green army will march to the rescue of our degraded land and polluted waterways,"

While our industry can continue to pollute our degraded land and polluted waterways. 

National park volunteer groups already exist tony, who do an great job of rescuing our degraded land and polluted waterways.  How about instead you concentrate on policy that doesn't do an post fix but rather stops our land from degrading and waterways from polluting?  Whoops, I'm asking too much. Go back to your slogans.