Why would any young person do this?

[i-need-a-martini]

Work for Abbotts "Green Army" for $10 an hour when the minimum youth wage in Australia is around $18 an hour?

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbotts-green-army-ready-to-march-but-its-not-...

[cherry*135]

Yay, paints you found Margie LOL.

[fourandsixpants]

ref. Is it voluntary to sign up.?

I can see a young person who would like to do conservation/environmental work as a career would be interested. They do get aCert ( I or II).

Doing volunteer work in the field of your choice can help get a foot in the door.

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

I guess if you close your eyes hard and make a wish.....anything could happen out there, like finding this mythical door opening opportunity of work. It'll happen for thousands and thousands of our young whilst they're spraying for blackberries (breathing in cancerous chemicals) getting heat stroke and catching foxes and revegetating mining leased land on behalf of  backslapping neolibs mates.........*close your eyes hard now......don't you dare peek!

OOOOH! look.......

[cherry*135]

$10 p.h. x 40hrs a week x 26 weeks x 15 000 participants (by 2018) = $? Per 6 mths

[cherry*135]

There won't be 15 000 job vacancies avail every year in that field....not even 2500.

[fourandsixpants]

$10/hr x 40 hrs/wk = $400

$400 x 26 wks(6 months) = $10,400

$10,400 x 15,000 participants = $156,000,000 for a 6 month period

From now in 2014 until same time in 2018 would be 8 x 6 month periods

$156,000,000 x 8 lots of 6 months = $1,248,000,000

only 1 billion and two hundred and forty eight million dollars

[fourandsixpants]

ref. this BS in the media about Abbotts "Green Army"

what else you got pls?

[i-need-a-martini]

---

@am*3 wrote:
"it's an environmental traineeship."

That would cover the lower wage rate.

Not sure if the participants only work in their home area or they travel away to where the projects are.

---

It may be a traineeship but they don't come out of it with a trade do they?

And the work isn't exactly educational - clearing scrub, planting trees, spraying weeds, clearing waterways of rubbish etc.

[languidlady49]

How's about you naysayers join the real current world, employment opportunities are falling rapidly, chat with someone self employed and business owners, times are getting hard. What would you like the young unemployed to do, sit home and experiment with drugs and alcohol, get each other pregnant or get out there and do something and earn a few bob.

[fourandsixpants]

I would very much like my young adult children to get a decent part-time and/or full-time or indeed a casual job at a fair rate of pay. There are none. We have tried.

What is being spoken about here is paramount to slave labour.

Nothing is being 'offered' it sounds as if it will be a mandatory bit of legislation

It is not a new idea, it has been tried before by previous governments.

If it was/is such a great thing then why have these several same programs not continued with great success?

Times are getting hard regards employment.

This is what we vote in govts for - to find ways to create jobs.

This is not an example of job creation.

My kids hopefully won't be experimenting with drugs....and none of mine drink alcohol. Their own choice. 

Yes lets demand that our government create jobs....instead of sending them offshore, giving them to 457 visa holders and similar (via their business mates' companies), closing manufacturing en masse, closing govt depts en masse too, shutting down small business grants and training, closing educational course opportunities directly and indirectly (by putting up fees to unaffordable levels).....at present we are not seeing genuine efforts to create jobs.

Don't underestimate our young Australian adults.....they see through this present governments mandate clearer than any previous generation before them.

Abbott had better remember that most of them are eligible to vote and many more will be voting at the next Federal election. You can bet on the outcome! 

[fourandsixpants]

.....and most importantly I forgot to add:

Who do I blame for the lack of jobs ?

I blame the free trade agreements our Australian Parliament endorses in bipartisanship.