Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

In joining the debate on this motion I will particularly focus on the work of two community organisations in my electorate which have been doing some outstanding work for many, many years, those being Rotary and Landcare. It is probably a bit unfair to single out two organisations, because there are volunteers across my community who make an extremely valuable contribution in organisations like surf lifesaving clubs, Lions clubs, school parents clubs, hospital auxiliaries and sporting clubs and as committee members.

I preface my comments by pointing out that I am a little bit concerned that in our community at the moment, with so many people having such busy lives, there is a noticeable greying of the volunteer workforce. The burden unfortunately is falling on too few, and our volunteers are ageing. It is not a criticism of younger people in particular, because there are many who are doing an outstanding job in my community, but we do need to encourage more younger people to get involved in community life through volunteering. In regional communities like Gippsland we recognise that we all have to pull our own weight and it is up to all of us to do our own little bit. I encourage people to find an organisation that suits their interests, to join up and get involved and to help make a difference in their community. They will certainly benefit from the experience, and so will our wider community.

As I said, I want to refer specifically to Landcare. This week we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Maffra and Districts Landcare Network and we launched a booklet which commemorates some of the great achievements of Landcare in my community. While it was an opportunity to celebrate and give the members of Landcare, along with the professional staff, a chance to reflect for just a moment on some of their outstanding achievements, I believe that there are some significant concerns facing the future of Landcare in the government's failure to commit to the $11 million it originally had in its forward estimates to pay for Landcare facilitators throughout Australia. It is a concern to me because we have Landcare volunteers who I describe as the practical environmentalists of our nation. These are the people who are prepared to get their hands dirty. They do the tree planting. They do the erosion control work. They do the weed removal programs. They are helping to boost biodiversity in our community. I think it is up to governments at both state and federal levels to deliver on the funding for the Landcare facilitators, who do a very good job of leveraging additional volunteer effort in my community. On a more positive note, I would also like to comment briefly on the success of the Rotary movement in the Gippsland region. I attended a fundraising function on Saturday night for the Gippsland Rotary Centenary House. I have spoken about Centenary House in the past in this place, but it is worth recapping just for a moment on what an outstanding job Centenary House does. This organisation was established to provide accommodation for people as they attended the Latrobe Regional Hospital, normally for cancer treatment. The Rotary club volunteers from across Gippsland have done an outstanding job in terms of fundraising and were instrumental in establishing, with support from the previous coalition government and the former state Labor government in Victoria, the first stage of this project that provides accommodation. It has had very strong bipartisan support from day one.

The people of Gippsland have benefited for several years now from that work of the state and federal governments, philanthropic organisations, local businesses and Rotary members. I am pleased to report that that spirit of bipartisanship has continued with the current federal government. The Minister for Health and Ageing announced earlier this year $1.5 million for the next stage of Centenary House. While it is depressing that we need to build an additional nine units at Centenary House because demand is so high for cancer treatment at the Latrobe Regional Hospital, on the positive side it has also brought out the best of the Rotarians right across Gippsland. So in addition to the government's $1.5 million, which the community is very thankful for, Rotary members from clubs right across the Gippsland district have been fundraising again over the past 12 months. On Saturday night the fundraising function was very well attended. I would like to congratulate the organisers, Kay and Tony Radford, Carmen Cook and the rest of the fundraising team, along with the Chairman of Centenary House, Mr Ken Peake, his team and the house manager, Carol Crewe, who does such a great job in accommodating Gippslanders at a time of great need in their lives.

These are just a couple of examples of some great Australians, some great Gippslanders, who are setting an extraordinary example for our community. I think it further highlights the importance of volunteering to help others. I encourage Gippslanders who are interested in getting involved in community groups to join up and help make a difference in our community. I thank the House for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the volunteers throughout the Gippsland region.

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