Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Few things unite Australians more, in times of adversity, than volunteering. As a land of contrasts, every year the country is impacted by a seemingly endless array of natural disasters. Just a couple of weeks ago, the north of Western Australia weathered its latest tropical cyclone, Cyclone Rusty, while on the other side of the country parts of Queensland suffered yet more flooding. In January, bushfires again scorched our countryside, including in the Perth hills and the south-west of Western Australia.

In these times of trouble it has long been a part of our psyche that we band together, lend a hand and volunteer to assist our neighbours. We Australians gladly down our own tools to pick up a fire hose as a volunteer firefighter. We fill sandbags and secure damaged properties as members of the local State Emergency Service. We patch grazed skin and treat cuts and bruises as part of the local ambulance services. And we doorknock for charity in very large numbers. Throughout our history, the willingness to lend a hand and help a mate in time of need has become an entrenched part of who we are as Australians. That sense of mateship that we are so very proud of is never more evident than in times of disaster.

I was recently reminded of the importance of volunteering and donating one's time when I received a letter from a resident of Exmouth, which is a seaside town halfway up the WA coast, about 1,400 kilometres north of Perth. In this letter the lady who wrote it outlined the difficulty the local ambulance service faces as its small team of volunteers donate so much of their time ensuring that ambulance services are available throughout the huge district of which Exmouth is the centre.

Exmouth is a small town; yet, as the woman's letter noted, its ambulance service extends over an area from the coastal community to the highway at Nanutara and Manilya. To attend a road accident at Nanutara on the North West Coastal Highway means a round trip of almost 800 kilometres from Exmouth—a very large distance indeed. The woman commented:

Volunteers proudly and willingly sacrifice their time away from work but time translates into cost; and distances cost the volunteers much time away from paid work.

But they do this regardless of the loss of income to themselves. Unlike in the metropolitan area, where the outstanding work of the St John Ambulance service is undertaken by paid employees, many of the volunteers in regional areas are self-employed businesspeople or people working in service industries where the donation of their time translates into lost income.

As Exmouth is a very popular holiday town, tourism plays a large part in its economy. The downside is that, when the tourists come, more pressure is placed on the limited volunteers in such areas as the local ambulance service. The situation, of course, is far from unique to Exmouth. Before entering the Senate in 1996 I was a doctor in Port Hedland. I served as the chairman of the local ambulance service board of St John Ambulance and I saw firsthand the valuable work volunteers played in the life of that service in providing emergency services to people in various times of crisis along the North West Coastal Highway and within the town of Port Hedland itself.

It is not just the ambulance service where volunteers play an important part in the lives of towns in the north. Recent tropical cyclone Rusty showed yet again the vital role played by volunteers of the state emergency service. And, as lives returned to normal in the north-west after that cyclone, many volunteers went about donating much of their time to such organisations as Meals on Wheels, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and the local hospital.

In 2010, the Barnett Government in WA released a report into the value of volunteering in the state. Among its findings were that the prevalence of volunteering among Western Australians had grown significantly from the equivalent of 99,000 jobs in 1992 to 146,000 in 2006. Almost four in 10 members of the community volunteered through an organisation—up from around one in four in 1995. The same 35- to 44-year-old age group gave $544 million of the $2.1 billion given through organised volunteering in Western Australia in 1996. The volunteer participation rate—42.9 per cent—was also highest in this age group. There were more volunteers in regional areas than in Perth, and I think that is probably typically found all over Australia. Country people are more willing to go out and give some of their time in public service.

As the Exmouth resident who wrote to me noted, there is much more to the local volunteer ambulance service than 'blood and gore'. Clerical and secretarial work and simply refuelling and washing vehicles and checking tyre pressure are some of the more mundane tasks that remain vital to the operation of such a service, especially in the country. I encourage people to consider how they can make the valuable donation of time an ongoing part of their lives to support volunteer organisations in our community.