Labor’s Environment spokesman, Mark Butler is reported to have expressed some concerns about the programme, and called for more details on how it is to work: ‘with only four months until this program is due to start, no one is clear on the specific detail about how the Green Army will work. Of considerable concern are the exemptions from work health and safety, compensation and industrial relations laws’.[18]

The Greens
Greens MP, Adam Bandt is reported to have had similar concerns about the programme, stating ‘only Tony Abbott could create a ‘workforce’ where the workers aren’t legally workers and have no workplace rights. If a green army supervisor and a worker under their command get injured while wielding a pick or building a lookout, the supervisor will have the same safety and compensation protections as ordinary employees but the worker won’t.’[19]

The issue of workplace protections for programme participants is considered in the key issues and provisions section, below.

Position of major interest groups
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)
ACTU president, Ged Kearney is reported to have been highly critical of the Green Army Programme, stating ‘this is about taking away well-paid, well-protected jobs from people and replacing them with low-paid, unsafe jobs. This is not about getting people on the margins of the workforce into work; this is about providing a low-paid workforce’.[20]

source

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1314a/14bd049