Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to pay tribute to all the fantastic volunteers who give so much to our community, particularly those in my electorate, which is why I have fought so hard on their behalf to secure funding to assist them to continue to do the great work they do. Volunteers do the work that no government could ever do, and, even if the government could afford it or provide the people, it would never be done with the same amount of passion, commitment and interaction that our volunteers provide. That is why the Howard government has made such an investment in the volunteers in our community.

In the past few weeks, I have announced nearly $200,000 in Volunteer Small Equipment Grants for around 84 projects in my electorate. The 2007 program has provided 7,700 community grants across our great nation. The funding recognises the great volunteer work of organisations such as the SES, the Rural Fire Service, the school P&Cs, Meals on Wheels, community groups, coastal patrols, sporting groups and environmental groups. There are myriad organisations who work hard in our community that deserve this funding, and this funding recognises their commitment. The Volunteer Small Equipment Grants is one of the most popular programs that the Howard government’s Stronger Families and Communities Strategy is providing.

I announced the successful organisations for Gloucester, Port Stephens, Dungog, Great Lakes and the Maitland Shire Council regions. That is right: part of Maitland is in the seat of Hunter. The Howard government does not discriminate between volunteers on the basis of whether their seat is held by a government member or non-government member—unlike the Labor Party in New South Wales, who continue to play politics over the recognition of volunteers.

I have made a speech in this place before revealing how people in the Hunter have missed out on being recognised under the New South Wales Premier’s Community Service Award simply because they do not live in a Labor-held seat in New South Wales. One of these volunteers in my electorate, Hope Simpson, is from Karuah. She is an advocate of the Tidy Towns committee and has worked with Karuah Meals on Wheels for 12 years. She is also a long-serving member of Karuah’s community centre. Mrs Simpson was nominated for a Premier’s Community Service Award but denied it after that seat changed hands at the last state election.

I have raised this issue before. I have fought on behalf of volunteers to have their work recognised. I have challenged the Labor Party to overturn its political game with these awards. But no, these volunteers still do not have the recognition they deserve from the New South Wales Labor government. They have still not received an award, and it appears they will not be receiving an award. It seems that anyone who lives in a seat which is not held by the Labor Party in New South Wales is discriminated against. We do not do that in the federal government; we support volunteers across the nation for what they do, not for where they live or who their member is.

We have an amazing group of volunteers in our community. We have instituted a program whereby, through recognition, certificates have been provided by the Prime Minister and signed by Mal Brough as well. We have been presenting those in a series of programs to recognise this vital work throughout our community. The Australian government has distributed over $62 million to more than 29,000 community groups since 2001 for our volunteers in the community to aid them to buy materials, to make their jobs as volunteers just a little bit easier. We support our volunteers.

In the federal budget there was an additional $66 million over four years for these small equipment grants. They have been expanded to sporting groups to make their job a little bit easier. Why should our volunteers have to make such an effort raising money to buy equipment to serve the needs of their community? That is an outrageous argument. In recognition of this, within the electorate of Paterson, I will be holding the Paterson Citizen of the Year awards again on 8 October. There are four awards: Citizen of the Year, Corporate Citizen of the Year, Young Citizen of the Year and Sports Achiever of the Year. This is an exciting opportunity to congratulate and say thank you to those in our community who serve our community—unlike the Labor Party, who would discriminate against such people. It is about time that people understood that volunteers in our community are above partisan politics. They deserve to be recognised from wherever they come for the work that they do and not for the political affiliations of their seats.