Introduction and Background
The Green Team Development Unit Aboriginal Corporation was created in July 2009. The purpose of the Corporation, now trading as the Green Teams Alliance (GTA), is to address high levels of unemployment and social equity issues amongst Aboriginal people living on the coast of NSW between the Hawkesbury to the Tweed Rivers. The Corporation aims to capitalize on existing Aboriginal work teams which are already undertaking land rehabilitation work in this region. It also aims to take opportunities emerging in areas of land rehabilitation along highway developments and other major construction initiatives as well as recent changes in the legislative framework on carbon reduction initiatives.
It is important to take into account that considerable consultation has been undertaken in the creation of the Corporation. As a result of the consultation process, a Regional Partnership Agreement has been signed with key stakeholders representing Community, Federal and State Ministers and Local Members, the three tiers of Government, NGO’s and Industry. The Corporation itself is made up of 12 members representing the major Aboriginal Employment providers and the local Aboriginal Land Councils.
Currently there are over 70 Green Teams undertaking substantial contract work in the regions. The problem has been the short term and intermittent nature of contracts.
GTA’s Role
The role of the GTA is to therefore create certainty and sustainability for the Green Teams by:
- Building strategic partnerships with Communities, Industry and Government;
- Securing long term commercial contracts for Indigenous Green Teams to carry out a full range of natural resource management projects;
- To provide contract management of such contracts;
- Provide mentoring, business management and project management services to existing and emerging Green Teams recognizing that one of the desired outcomes is business creation in the local communities along the central and north coast;
- Facilitate the delivery of training and development needs of the emerging Green Teams.
