Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the almost 6 million Australian volunteers who contribute 600 million hours each year to help others through secular and faith-based volunteering organisations;

(2) notes that:

(a) in early 2020, two out of every three volunteers cut back their hours, including many older volunteers who had to self-isolate, leaving charities short by an estimated 12.2 million hours per week; and

(b) only around one in four volunteer organisations managed to get volunteer participation back to pre-pandemic levels of activity by the start of 2021;

(3) recognises that while volunteering organisations have been supporting much greater numbers of people in need with fewer resources during the coronavirus pandemic, there was nothing in the Government's latest budget for volunteers; and

(4) calls on the Government to get behind our volunteer organisations and make sure they have the resources they need to continue their important work.

When you're lucky enough to be elected as a member of parliament you meet the best people, people who volunteer, give their time and capacity every day to help others. And in this time of COVID I particularly want to pay tribute to the six million Australian volunteers who contribute around 600 million hours each year to helping others. They are the backbone of our secular and our faith-based community organisations. This became all the more obvious during the coronavirus pandemic when volunteering organisations stepped up when the Morrison government was absent.

In my electorate volunteers mobilised to feed thousands of people, including temporary visa holders, international students, refugees and asylum seekers who received no support from the government when they lost work last year. Unfortunately, for most organisations this has meant doing more with less because as demand shot up many volunteers had to opt out. In early 2020 two out of every three volunteers cut back their hours, including many older volunteers who had to self-isolate, leaving charities short by an estimated 12.2 million hours per week. Only around one in four organisations were able to get volunteer participation back to pre-pandemic levels of activity by the start of this year. I give my profound thanks to all of those individuals and organisations who stepped into the gap last year and who continue to do so at a time that is still of great need in our community.

When COVID hit hard last year there were huge gaps in the support that the Morrison government gave. We saw gaps in support for temporary visa holders, international students, refugees and asylum seekers and a number of organisations stepped in. The Sathya Sai organisation, which was established in 1960s by Sathya Sai Baba, is an organisation dedicated to providing service activities for people as a means for spiritual advancement. They participated in an interesting way last year. They stepped into the middle. Volunteers from the youth wing of Sri Sathya Sai International collected donations of staple foods like rice and flour from the front door of people's homes and distributed those to other organisations who would package them up for distribution to the community. A really interesting approach, stepping into a gap that existed, providing support to organisations who worked on the frontline. I thank the youth wing of Sri Sathya Sai International for an extraordinary contribution. I know that their service continues. It's a really extraordinary contribution at a time of great need.

An organisation that stepped into the gap last year when so many people were left behind was the Tamil Friends of Labor. With support from Sri Sathya Sai and the Tamil Resource Centre at Pendle Hill, volunteers at Tamil Friends of Labor delivered thousands of emergency food parcels last year. For the most part the parcels went to people who had been left out of the support packages. These included refugees, asylum seekers and temporary visa holders—people who received no support from the government during the pandemic.

I put my hand up to help with some of the deliveries—many, many others did too. They put in many more hours than I did, but in that short period I met people who'd been working in local restaurants who were the first to lose their jobs when the lockdown started, people let go because they weren't eligible for JobKeeper. I met one young refugee family living in a share house in Granville with a newborn baby. His dad had lost his job when COVID struck—one month before the baby was born. There was no money left for food and nappies. They were sharing that two bedroom house with two other families. Thank you so much to Tamil Friends of Labor for the work they did. I met so many people who were really struggling. It was a small amount of help but help that really made a difference.

I also want to talk about Parramatta Mission, one of the mainstays in my community that provides meals—breakfast, lunch—and other emergency services to people in most need. Their demand for services, including cooked meals and food, had absolutely skyrocketed when COVID struck. Like so many organisations, their regular volunteers are retirees so during the lockdown they lost most of them overnight. At the same time demand for their services skyrocketed. There was a 25 per cent increase in new people accessing their services and a 40 per cent increase in demand for food hamper relief. When the queues stretched outside the Centrelink office volunteers went down to tell people in the queue that they were there if they were needed. They met one man who, as soon as they spoke, broke down in tears because he'd never been out of work and had no idea how to feed his family. I thank Parramatta Mission and all the other volunteers so much for their efforts. They were absolutely there when our community needed them and we wouldn't have got through it without them.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Parramatta for bringing this important motion—not necessarily for everything that she said, but I don't think that would come as any great surprise to the member for Parramatta. But the underlying philosophy of her motion is a very important one, and that is: where would we be without our volunteers in this country?

Recently we celebrated National Volunteer Week, and on 17 May 2021 I had about 50 representatives of various volunteer groups come to the deck just below my office on Lake Kawana. If you get a chance, Mr Deputy Speaker, come to this spot. It's an absolute paradise in the best electorate in the country. I told those volunteers that today there are six million volunteers working in Australia and they volunteer about 600 million hours each year. I did some very quick back-of-the-envelope maths. Calculating on an average of about $80 an hour for wages and on costs, it's a $48 billion saving to governments. That's $48 billion that we as taxpayers don't need to pay, all because of the generosity of some six million Australians. Locally on the Sunshine Coast, we've got about 26,000 volunteers working in 131 volunteer organisations.

For anybody who is not a volunteer, I want to send out this challenge to you: volunteer, whether it's in a surf lifesaving club or in a croquet club. It doesn't matter what it is. Do it not just for the community in which you work but because you will get benefits yourself—the benefits you obtain by volunteering, the act of providing services without getting a financial reward. It's the warm and fuzzy benefit. You do get that warm and fuzzy feeling. It's good for your mental health to feel that you are part of something much bigger than yourself. I've been involved in many different community organisations. I joined my first organisation as a volunteer when I was 14, and I've been a volunteer ever since, and I know that many people in this place would be the same.

I want to thank the volunteers of Fisher. I want to thank all the volunteers of this country, who give up so much of their time. Not only are they doing that for the benefit of their community but their federal government is absolutely working alongside them, and we do that by providing various grants. I want to just spend a couple of moments talking about some of the programs that we run.

Since 2016, 60 grants under the Stronger Communities Program have been provided to organisations in my electorate, totalling some $1.1 million. This includes $9,000 for the Met-Cal Surf Life Saving Club for a new patrol trailer and $13,775 for the RoboCoast Sunshine Coast Robotics Association, an absolutely amazing organisation led by volunteers who teach kids how to build robots. Then they compete against each other, and schools from every state come together on the Sunshine Coast and have these amazing robot competitions. To see these kids, some in their primary school years, actually making robots is really quite amazing. There is $13,500 for Montville Village Association for the construction of a covered deck and the upgrade of disability access to the heritage listed Montville Village Hall. Since 2016, 70 volunteer grants of up to $5,000 have helped with things like fuel, training and equipment costs. There is $5,000 for the Maleny Light Horse regiment, who were at the Maleny Show just a couple of days ago. There is $4,740 for Bamboo Projects Education for Mooloolaba volunteers. There is $4,990 for the Caloundra Committee of Service to the Ageing.

We all have stories about how the government's grants programs have helped volunteers. Every single member in this place, from across the country, has benefited from it, and when I say that I mean the community has benefited from it. This government will continue to work for volunteers and work with them.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It'd be difficult to overstate how important the contribution of volunteers is to communities across Australia, and I thank the member for Parramatta for bringing this motion. These include charities, soup kitchens, school working bees, school class aides and driving people to appointments in my electorate. There's a great program that helps young people get their driving hours up to get their licence if they don't have access to a car. There are environment land care groups and English language lessons and conversation classes.

I remember talking to my mum when she was dying. I nursed her for 10 months at home when she was dying from cancer. One of her funnier regrets, I remember, was when she said she was never going to live to fulfil her dream of being an op-shop lady. She died just as she turned 70. She'd moved house and she had already scouted out the op-shops around the corner. She loved an op-shop. She'd come back and say, 'Look, I saved $10.' I think I said, 'I think you wasted $6, Mum, but there you go.'

Six million Australians volunteer every year across Australia. That's a $200 billion contribution to the Australian economy. Unfortunately with COVID we have seen two-thirds of volunteers cut their hours and, in particular, many older volunteers have not returned.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:51 to 12:07

I recently visited South East Volunteers. They're a wonderful organisation in south-east Melbourne serving about six councils, including the City of Greater Dandenong and the City of Casey in any electorate. Most importantly, their core service is place based volunteering. That involves face-to-face conversations between a volunteer, or a potential volunteer, and a worker from the service. It's human-to-human interaction. I saw this firsthand when I visited the Narre Warren office with May, the coordinator there, who's there a day or two a week, and the CEO, Ann Burgess. They get to know volunteers. They assess their suitability, their interests and the things they might be good at and they match them with local organisations. It's local people and local organisations. In particular, this face-to-face service is critical for people who might have difficulties with English or who may actually just be shy. Many volunteers are shy. They might be introverted and need that extra help. Or they might not be confident with a computer.

This is why it's so shocking that, in this budget, the Liberal government are cutting nationally all funding to place based volunteer services from 30 June this year. They tried this a couple of years ago. We had a debate about it in this very chamber. Afterwards, Liberal MPs said, 'I didn't know we were doing this.' Magically, behind the scenes, they backed off until after the election—but they're back and at it again. They're cutting all of the funding nationally to place based volunteer services and they're replacing it with a website in Canberra. There will be no more core funding to support local people to be matched to local organisations in this country. This will mean that numerous small local volunteering services, where this is pretty much the only funding they get, will close, especially in regional areas. They will be replaced with a website in Canberra. This website idea was tried over 10 years ago. It failed—it didn't work—which is why we went back to place based services. The government have learnt nothing.

If people say, 'We haven't heard of this. Where did this come from?' it's because the government are trying to sneak it through. They're buying off the peak bodies with one year of transitional funding. Volunteering Victoria is getting a year of transitional funding. The government will dole a bit of that out to try and shut people up until after the election, but services cannot use this transitional funding for core work. It can now only be used for the three so-called priority groups: First Nations people, people with a disability and new migrants. In my part of Melbourne, my part of Australia, that's pretty much their main bread and butter. Last year they helped new migrants from 102 different countries. That's what they already do, but they're not going to get this money anymore. The government's going to be putting it out in a tender. We don't know how this tender will work, but you can bet your bottom dollar, based on this government's track record, that local services won't get a look-in. I bet the job networks will be lining up those private providers to put in the tender and get this money—or one big charity the government favours or a private company.

Every time the government has done so-called reform of local services, whether it's emergency relief funding, where, under Tony Abbott, they cut every dollar to local emergency relief services, they have scrapped translation services for people who don't speak English, and now they're attacking volunteering. They come after the small local organisations and hand it out to two or three or four big national groups with a big logo, and it doesn't land in local communities. So I condemn the government for this charade of cutting all funding to local volunteering services nationally.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak on the Morrison government's unwavering support for Australian volunteers. The motion those opposite have presented is completely unfounded. The Morrison government provides $10 million a year for grassroots volunteer grants to assist our volunteers and encourage volunteering in our local communities. As for 2021 volunteer grants, this has been doubled to $20 million in funding, which has now commenced, with the outcomes to be announced later this year. This funding is available to every electorate across the country—equal support for all our volunteers nationwide.

Now in its sixth year, the very popular Stronger Communities Program, which was introduced by our government, provides grants of between $2½ thousand and $20,000 to community organisations, delivering social benefits for locals. As part of this program, I recently had the pleasure of visiting Ocean Crusaders in my electorate of Bonner, who were awarded $20,000 for the installation of an automatic bottle cap washing machine. Based in Hemmant, this charity organisation specialises in cleaning our waterways, particularly through their Caps Crusade initiative. This funding is a game changer for their volunteers, making sure they can clean bottle caps even quicker and get cleaner plastic back on the market for reuse. Then there's our government's Powering Communities Program, which, in 2021, will fund up to 12 projects worth $68,000 in my electorate of Bonner, helping community organisations and their hardworking volunteers lower their energy bills. With all this funding, it's clear that supporting volunteers isn't just important; it's essential to the Morrison government.

Recognising how hard this sector has been working through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Morrison government stepped up and provided an additional $3.2 million through volunteering peak bodies. This was on top of the $10 million annual volunteer grants round and the $6.6 million one-off funding included as part of the latest budget for the redesigned volunteer management activity. Does this sound like a government that isn't supporting our volunteers? The Morrison government is securing Australia's recovery and getting the volunteering sector back on its feet. The Morrison government recognises these local organisations have strengthened our communities for decades. We are equipping volunteers with tools and resources that they need on the ground. We are promoting awareness for volunteer groups in our local communities. The Morrison government has our volunteers covered.

As part of last year's volunteer grants, I awarded funding to 16 local community organisations, including supporting clubs, Rotary, Scouts and many others. These grants were between $1,000 to $5,000, to best support their work on the ground. Wynnum Manly District Cricket Club was a recipient of a $5,000 grant. This has enabled big changes for the club. It has meant that they could upgrade the scorers' room with new furniture and air conditioning, which, during a Queensland summer cricket season, is invaluable to the volunteers who keep the runs ticking over for the club. We all know the amazing work that Meals On Wheels provides to our senior community members, giving them the power to live independently for longer. I've been privileged to work alongside Meals On Wheels in Mount Gravatt several times. The volunteers are at the heart of this group, and they are second to none. So I was very happy to recently announce that they were successful in receiving a $5,000 volunteer grant. Deputy Speaker Bird, as you know, this is a service that relies wholeheartedly on volunteers to deliver meals to the elderly. Volunteers use their own vehicles to deliver meals up to four times a week. This grant meant that Meals On Wheels Mount Gravatt could reimburse volunteers their fuel costs.

Those opposite say the Morrison government isn't backing our volunteers enough. I have to thank those opposite for providing an opportunity today to demonstrate that the Morrison government is actually backing our volunteers. The Morrison government is providing record levels of support for this vital sector, and that is seeing volunteer groups go from strength to strength. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the hardworking volunteers in my electorate of Bonner.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion, and I thank the member for Parramatta for raising this very important issue, because volunteers are the lifeblood of our communities. It would be remiss of me not to mention the changes that have been made by this government. Earlier we heard the member for Bruce talk about the place based volunteer services and the cuts that are taking place and especially how it will affect regional areas, where services will be replaced with some sort of website with the result that people will be unaware of where to find information and won't even be aware that it's up and running. In place of the current funding arrangements, some peak bodies will be given a year of transitional funding.

I've seen the effect that this will have on some great organisations in my own electorate, especially in migrant services. Those services, which are volunteer based, assist people with interpreters, translations et cetera. The work is all done by volunteers. This will affect them. Another example is the Hutt St Centre in my electorate, which is an incredible organisation that does great work for homeless people, trying to help them transition out of homelessness into a stable residence with the services that go with that. The Hutt St Centre has just had its grants chopped by the state government. They are one of the volunteer groups in my electorate that do an enormous amount of work, and there'll be a big gap in the Adelaide CBD without that funding for the Hutt St Centre. We recently visited the centre with Jason Clare, who is the shadow minister for housing, to see the great work they do. It's such a pity that the state Marshall Liberal government has decided to chop their funding because that will in turn affect their volunteers and all the good work that's being done there.

As I've said, I've got some great volunteer groups in my electorate. The SANFL is the South Australian football association for Aussie Rules football—the highest division in the state. I was on the board of the West Adelaide Football Club for a number of years. You see the volunteers that come in day in day out, assisting with coaching, helping to run the canteen, and taking guernseys home to wash them. It is great work, and you see it everywhere. Another great organisation in my electorate is the Adelaide Day Centre for Homeless Persons which has been set up to assist people in some of the most dire straits. The centre assists people who are living on the streets to transition and come back to some sort of normality. It is run by a magnificent woman, Sister Janet Mead of the Sisters of Mercy. Many of you who are my age may remember Sister Janet Mead. She had a hit song with the Lord's Prayer in the seventies, which went to No. 1 and remained in the top 40 for years. This woman does incredible work. She is our own Mother Theresa in South Australia. They go around and pick people up who are sleeping in parks and doing it rough. They feed them and get them into shelter, and then transition them into some form of housing. I'd just like to give a shout out to Sister Janet Mead and all the other sisters at the Adelaide Day Centre for Homeless Persons. They do great, great work.

Then we come back to sport. We see sporting clubs in every suburb, from soccer to football. There's the Kilburn Football and Cricket Club—a great club that's run by the president, Dale Agius. They have everything from under-10 boys' teams to girls' teams. It's a fantastic community club that also assists some of the kids in the area who, if they didn't have their football teams and the support by Dale and the other members of the committee, perhaps may not have the opportunity to be where they are today. They also have a really good relationship with the Ghan Kilburn City Soccer Club, which uses the premises. Basically, they look after kids under 18 who have come here on their own as refugees. They gather them up every week and have a fantastic competition where they feel like they're part of the community.

This is all done by volunteers: people who are working their guts out, day in day out, for no return but just to give back to the community. I think we have to remind ourselves constantly what it would cost government if we took volunteers out of the community. So big praise to all our volunteers and volunteer groups.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the motion moved by the member for Parramatta, and to congratulate our hardworking volunteers across Australia. I thank them for their outstanding efforts, particularly in the last 12 months. Six million Australian volunteers contribute 600 million volunteer hours each and every year. That's an amazing statistic, and something that we should all feel proud of as Australians. I know that people in this room have volunteered and that people across my electorate of Higgins have volunteered. Australians love to volunteer.

The pandemic has placed significant strain on volunteers across Australia and, indeed, right across the world. We know that, because COVID has created a particular situation. But volunteers have pivoted to do things differently. I really congratulate my hardworking constituents and volunteers in Higgins for the work they have done to pivot during COVID-19.

As we know, volunteers are the lifeblood of our local communities. We're lucky in Higgins to have a cavalcade of hardworking, dedicated and generous volunteers providing countless hours of support to our community. Last week, it's worth noting, was National Volunteer Week, Australia's largest week celebrating volunteers. This year's theme is 'Recognise. Reconnect. Reimagine'. How appropriate, after the COVID-19 pandemic, which we know is still ongoing—particularly in my home state of Victoria. This year's theme is about recognising the hard work of our volunteers; reconnecting, which has been so difficult during COVID; and reimagining because, of course, we've had to pivot during COVID.

So it's befitting that I recognise a number of individuals in my electorate and the fact that they and the organisations they participate in have received significant support from the volunteer grants that our federal government—the Morrison government—has been distributing to each and every electorate right across Australia. That's $10 million each and every year, and this year it has increased to $20 million—so it has been doubled. I know that the volunteer organisations in my electorate of Higgins are very grateful for this contribution from the Morrison government—indeed, from the taxpayers of Australia.

The first one I'd like to talk about from my electorate is the Ashburton United Soccer Club, which I visited last year before the lockdown. Barry Poulsen has been a volunteer at the club for over 35 years and is a life member. He has been an incredible contributor to the Ashburton soccer club. His extensive involvement has been particularly through championing women's involvement and by promoting inclusiveness. It's fantastic to see that he has been recognised for the wonderful values he holds and the support that he gives to his club. The Ashburton club received a volunteer grant which enabled it to buy new computers and IT equipment, something that many sporting clubs need now that they're becoming digitalised. It makes it easier to keep track of what they do, and they're very pleased with that grant.

Another organisation is JoCare, based in Malvern. Kerri Anne Brussen is the coordinator for JoCare. Her army of volunteers is another great example of an organisation that pivoted. Kerri Anne teamed up with my office to make sure that the volunteers in her organisation could get out and support the vulnerable through printing of the services that they could provide to help with outreach to the socially isolated and those experiencing loneliness to provide them connections back to the community. Particularly through lockdown in Victoria, these were sorely needed services that were incredibly appreciated by those in my electorate.

Lastly, I want to mention a very long-serving volunteer, Mrs Patricia Lorraine Bridger, who has just celebrated her 100th birthday in Samarinda aged care in Ashburton. It was a delight to join Patricia, her family and friends for this very special occasion to celebrate her 100th birthday. It's one of my most favourite things I do as a member in parliament. I was able to provide a letter from the Queen, a letter from the Prime Minister and a birthday card from myself. She was born in 1921 on 14 April, and what was really beautiful is that she was wearing a pearl necklace given to her by her daughter which has 42 pearls—a pearl for every child, grandchild, great-grandchild and now great-great-grandchild; 42 pearls of joy around her neck. The celebrations exemplified her wonderful, long and happy life. I asked her the secret to her wonderful life and she said, 'A happy family.' Pat has lived an extraordinary life of selflessness. She's been involved in school committees and community fundraising. She has been a member of the East Malvern RSL for over 35 years. Congratulations, Patricia, and I look forward to your 101st birthday.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak on this motion before the Chamber today, moved by my colleague and friend the member for Parramatta. It is important indeed that we take an opportunity to stop, pause and reflect on the extraordinary contribution of volunteers in our nation and in each of our communities. I know that each member speaking wishes to do that. I certainly have a tradition in Newcastle where I hold an annual event to recognise the extraordinary contribution of volunteers in the federal electorate of Newcastle. I have been doing that since I was first elected in 2013, and I have awarded almost 270 individuals and at least 17 community based groups and organisations with recognition.

It is unimaginable. Our community would be a very, very different kind of place without volunteers who are working in our surf clubs, our sporting associations, our historical societies, our school P&Cs and our cultural institutions like community based cinemas. Our community service organisations ensure there is adequate food for people in our communities and reach out to those suffering mental ill-health. It always blows me away how each one of those volunteers is incredibly humble, does not expect to receive recognition and always thinks they're not deserving of recognition, yet thousands of other Novocastrians clearly disagree when they're nominating them to receive these awards each and every year.

There's another very important part of this motion which I want to bring to the attention of the Chamber. We don't get to just stand up here and pat ourselves on the back, congratulating our volunteer organisations. I have listened very carefully to the government contributions, and there has been little mention of the fact that our volunteer resource centres now—in regions like yours and mine; certainly in Newcastle—are being starved of funds. They are being literally starved of funds. We recognise that the volunteer organisations have increased need now because of the global pandemic, and the stress on volunteer organisations has been immense throughout COVID-19. But organisations that help make sure that our community has the volunteering capacity that is required, organisations like the Hunter Volunteer Centre, are about to lose their funding altogether. So let's not pat ourselves on the back, members of this government. This is not a time for hubris or self-congratulations. The Hunter Volunteer Centre has been assisting volunteers in my region for more than 45 years now. They have an extraordinary track record of assistance. More recently, in the past 20 years, they have directly assisted over 26,000 people to find volunteering opportunities in our community. They reach out to organisations to build their capacity to attract, sustain and maintain their volunteering base. It's incredibly important work.

What we learnt from the recent COVID restrictions is that people are willing to socially distance. They are willing to do what is necessary. But there is a very strong desire to reconnect now in our communities, for our regions to come together. So for the Hunter Volunteer Centre the decision of this government to effectively take away funding from regional centres, like the Hunter, and allocate it just to big state peak bodies is devastating news. It is effectively assigning local volunteer resource centres to the history books—not good enough. Members opposite should be lobbying their minister, as I am, to overturn this decision, to back our local resource centres— (Time expired)

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's with great pleasure that I rise to speak on this motion on volunteers. Winston Churchill famously said, 'We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.' I, along with my colleagues on this side of the chamber—and I've got no doubt those on the other side of the chamber—value the role and contribution that volunteers make to our communities right across this country. If I look at that, in part that is reflected in the nearly $10 million of volunteer grants that this government issues every year to assist volunteers and encourage volunteering. I'm very pleased that nearly $60,000 in volunteer and stronger community grants were allocated to my electorate in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 years for volunteer activities, including for organisations such as the Beenleigh Girls' Brigade, Chambers Flat Rural Fire Brigade, Coomera Valley Rural Fire Brigade, Girl Guides Queensland, Logan House Fire Support Network, Rosies youth mission, Shailer Park Meals On Wheels, St Vincent de Paul, Beenleigh BMX Club, Soroptimist International of Beenleigh and Beenleigh Quilters' Association. That is a reasonably long list but it does not in any way reflect the full list of the wonderful volunteer organisations across the electorate of Forde.

More broadly, the Australian government will deliver up to $40.1 million over five years for the new volunteer MA model to volunteering peak bodies. We're also providing a one-off investment of some $3.4 million to Volunteering Australia to develop and improve volunteer management and IT infrastructure. With many of the volunteer organisations that I deal with I know it is those skills in IT management and managing the volunteer base of those organisations that systems like this are greatly going to improve the efficiency of.

This is important because the volunteering sector is still struggling with the impact of COVID-19. Volunteering Australia's research shows that nearly three quarters of volunteer programs have not come back, or are not coming back—even as COVID restrictions are lifting. Out of the 600 respondents over half said their organisations needed more volunteers and four out of 10 are finding it difficult to re-engage or recruit previous volunteers or new ones. These, I think, are concerning numbers because the numbers of volunteers had already been declining in the lead-up to COVID-19. Being busy limits the free time that we have available to give to others. From 2010 to 2019 there was a seven per cent decline in the number of volunteers. The six million volunteers who volunteered in 2019 contributed nearly 600 million hours to our communities right across this country, yet, disappointingly, that's still a 20 per cent decrease from 2014.

With COVID, we've seen a long period of social distancing and isolation. Volunteering has been a terrific way for many to reconnect in our communities. But I know from speaking to those at our Meals on Wheels organisations, who do such a tremendous job, that they have struggled with volunteers, as have their clients. Normally their volunteers can go in and have a cup of tea and a bit of a chat, which breaks that loneliness and provides some company and discussion to those who might be home alone. It has been very difficult for them during COVID because they haven't been able to do that. They've had to knock on the door and leave the meal at the door and they've not been able to engage. Both the volunteers who are delivering the meals and also the people who are isolated in their homes have found that incredibly difficult.

The Volunteering Queensland website lists over 224 volunteering opportunities within 15 kilometre of Beenleigh. The Salvos in Beenleigh are looking for retail assistance. The Story Dogs volunteer team at Upper Coomera are looking for people to take their dogs into a local school every week to help children learn to read. Lives Lived Well need volunteers for Logan House and the Logan Family Recovery teams. The Logan Area Committee on the Ageing are looking for people to be part of their community visitor scheme.

I want to thank everybody in our community who are involved in volunteering. They make our community a richer and more vibrant place in which to live. I want to commend their efforts and wish them every success with their efforts in the future.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.