Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I would like to showcase the extent of volunteering in my home state of Tasmania and highlight the needs of the volunteering community across Australia. According to Volunteering Tasmania, my state has almost 4,720 not-for-profit organisations and most of these organisations use volunteers. There are 700,000 not-for-profit organisations nationally. In Tasmania there are—and I use this as an example—4,500 fire service volunteers alone, making up around 90 per cent of total number of fire service personnel. That does not include other emergency service volunteers, such as ambulance paramedics and SES personnel, who are mostly volunteers, particularly in the rural and regional parts of Tasmania.

I have previously in this place mentioned the powerful and selfless work these emergency workers undertake, often putting their lives on the line while their organisations rely on government grants and donations to survive or fundraising activity from supporters in their community. The Prime Minister, the Hon. John Howard, met some of these local heroes when he toured some of Tasmania’s bushfire ravaged east coast towns early last December. They were covered in sweat, almost black with soot, dirt and smoke, and were wearing the plastic overalls that must have made their lives a personal furnace every minute of the day. They would have been traumatised by what they saw, while worrying about their families and regular jobs and if their boss had the resources to keep their jobs open.

I am not just thinking of the fireys but also the hordes of volunteers handing out blankets and clothes to victims and keeping up meals to those on duty, and the hordes of volunteers that continually serve our community on a daily routine. And in my home state particularly, all this is taking place in remote or rural areas, where communications are sometimes difficult and the local economy lacks at times the critical mass and is rarely as robust as the urban economies of our cities.

The number of volunteers in Tasmania is estimated at more than 115,000. Nationally, the proportion of the adult population that is in the volunteer workforce is in fact 41 per cent. Tasmania has a very high incidence of and tremendous record in volunteerism. Volunteering in Australia has been valued by Professor Ironmonger at $42 billion. It is worth $42 billion to the Australian economy. Taking Tasmania on a population share basis, it is projected to be worth more than a billion dollars to the state economy each year. This contribution is significant in terms of the Tasmanian economy and the level of service delivery, given that the Tasmanian budget outlays total about $3 billion a year and the total federal payments to the state are worth approximately $2.5 billion. It shows that in the cities but more so in the country towns, villages and hamlets of Tasmania there is a silent army whose members are reaching out daily to help their fellow Tasmanians and saving the state almost $3 million a day in outlays. I would love to name them all. Suffice to say that the not-for-profit organisations that I think of at this moment range from the volunteer ambulance officers association, Meals on Wheels, surf lifesaving, fire service and emergency service volunteers to playgroup associations, Rotary, Apex, St John Ambulance, Probus, community committees, RSLs, Neighbourhood Watch, senior citizens, Red Cross, Little Athletics, the Anglican Women’s Guild, Landcare groups and health-care groups—and the list goes on and on.