E&OE….
Topics: Green Army, Human Rights Commissioner
MARK PARTON:
Greg Hunt is the Federal Environment Minister. There’s a number of things that we wanted to catch up about this morning and he’s on the line right now. G’day Greg.
GREG HUNT:
And good morning Mark.
MARK PARTON:
The first thing I wanted to ask you about is we – I wanted to find out more about the Federal Government’s announcement of the ACT hosting seven new Green Army projects because I’m one of those who believe that this whole Green Army thing was just pie in the sky to make people believe that you guys were going to do something about the environment when you didn’t really give a stuff.
GREG HUNT:
Oh look, I’m sorry that you felt a bit cynical about it, but look, truthfully, I was out with a team from Yass and a team from Queanbeyan in Queanbeyan just a couple of weeks ago. These young people included those that had been unemployed, those that had come from university courses who hadn’t found a job yet, there were Indigenous representatives.
They were cleaning up the local environment in Queanbeyan, they were cleaning up the river foreshore, they were taking out invasive species, they were explaining to me the types of plants that they were putting in, the skills. A number of young Indigenous employees have said to me, look when we were in Yass, what happened was that we weren’t doing anything, the elders, the seniors in the community would look at us with a bit of disdain…
MARK PARTON:
Yeah?
GREG HUNT:
They see us with the uniforms now, they see us making tracks, pulling weeds, planting, improving the local environment and they stopped us and said ‘we’re proud of you’ and we feel good about that. It’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had as a Member of Parliament and…
MARK PARTON:
How ‘bout that? How ‘bout that?
GREG HUNT:
(Inaudible) around the country.
MARK PARTON:
How cost effective is it though, Greg?
GREG HUNT:
Incredibly. Because you get a double bang for your buck. First and mostly importantly get the pride and the work ethic and the training and the pathways to a future for young people and that is invaluable. Secondly, you get the improvement of local environments around the country. We now have over 500 projects that have been announced, we have 100 projects that have, more than 100, that have started.
We were meant to achieve 250 by the end of this financial year but we’re going to achieve that, exceed that and do that on budget. So we’re getting more than we bargained for, but more importantly, we’re getting much stronger human results and environmental results than we’d ever hoped or dared put out to the public.
MARK PARTON:
Well, I’ve got to say at this stage the scheme has surprised me somewhat. So…
GREG HUNT:
Oh look, there are a lot of people who are professionally sceptical – I don’t put you in that category – but their goal is to try to be critical of one side or the other…
MARK PARTON:
No! Really?
GREG HUNT:
And I had a Labor Member yesterday – and I won’t name him because that wouldn’t be fair – who wanted to be invited to the openings and closings and said to me – look, I’ve been speaking to some of the young people in my patch and frankly, these are folks who may not have had a chance, for whom school might not have been the best experience and in some cases, this is the best personal professional experience or training experience they’ve had in the last five or six years…
MARK PARTON:
Wow.
GREG HUNT:
…and it’s really mattering.
MARK PARTON:
The Federal Environment Minister is with us, Greg Hunt. He’s just suggested that there are some people who tend to make their criticisms and their reflections along party lines. Let’s move on to the Human Rights Commission, if we could, Greg.
GREG HUNT:
Sure.
MARK PARTON:
Because this is all pretty interesting stuff, isn’t it? And obviously, you know, when things are being referred to the police it’s rather a bit serious and gee – you’re people didn’t hold back – criticising the Human Right Commission and Gillian Triggs in particular yesterday.
GREG HUNT:
Oh look, I think the deep concern is then when you see a case such as this one of John Basik-Basik, who was a former West Papuan from Indonesia, he was found guilty of having murdered his wife who was four months pregnant and had absconded on bail previously and then the Human Rights Commission and unfortunately the Head of the Commission, recommended that he should be paid $350,000 in compensation.
And this is somebody who had murdered his wife, had bashed her to death, she was pregnant and the, of course, sadly, tragically the young foetus was lost as well and so a double tragedy. And then to paint this person as a victim to omit all of the facts about the four month pregnancy, to omit the facts about the previous absconsion of bail and then to say for some reason the Government was at fault.
This was a person that four successive Ministers, two Labor, two Liberal, had deemed to be a risk to the public and a risk to women in particular. That’s caused enormous concern.
MARK PARTON:
And look, we understand that and it certainly came through with the things that we heard yesterday – that there is enormous concern from the Attorney-General, from the Prime Minister. I guess one of the big questions is, with that concern on the table, offering Gillian Triggs an incentive to resign as President of the Human Rights Commission. I don’t know – maybe it doesn’t look appropriate?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I don’t know the facts other than that there has been a clear and categorical rejection of that proposition from the Secretary of that Department and from the Attorney-General. So both the Secretary and the Attorney-General have made clear that they don’t accept the statement as presented. Beyond that, I just wouldn’t be in a position to comment.
MARK PARTON:
No. That’s fair enough Greg.
GREG HUNT:
But let’s just be clear – this case of the lottery windfall for somebody convicted of murdering their wife and their unborn child in the most brutal way and with a history of absconding from bail. It sadly raises very, very significant questions.
MARK PARTON:
Well there are those who think we should just endlessly spread the love in every direction, but unfortunately we can’t.
GREG HUNT:
At the end of the day and to be fair to the two Labor Minister’s who’d made decisions in this space, they also came to the exactly the same conclusion. Our job is to, first and foremost, protect the innocent, protect the public, protect the unborn, protect the women who in this case clearly been victims of manifest brutal action, the unborn child and the mother.
MARK PARTON:
Greg, thanks for your time this morning. As always – appreciate it.
GREG HUNT:
Thank you.
(ENDS)