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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 10 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 2684 ..

International Volunteer Day

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (4.49): Mr Speaker, I will speak briefly on a much more serious note than Mr Berry. Today is Volunteer Day all around the world. It is celebrated in more than 100 countries around the world. It is a day when we pay tribute to those members of the community who give so generously of their time and effort for causes and for the people who live in our community. According to national surveys, the ACT has the highest rate of volunteers of any State or Territory in Australia, with some 26.1 per cent of residents aged 15 or over providing volunteer work to our community over the past year.

Mr Humphries: That is it; run away, Wayne.

MRS CARNELL: To him, this is not important. That is more than one in four Canberrans, or about 75,000 people. I think that is something that our community can be justly proud of. I would also like to pay tribute to the Volunteer Centre of the ACT, which helps provide vital support and training programs for volunteers. Without volunteers, many community organisations in the ACT, and around the world, would simply not exist, and that would place an enormous burden on the Government's limited resources. Volunteers provide an incredibly broad range of services in the ACT. They work at such things as fighting bushfires, caring for the elderly, coaching sports teams, cooking meals for those who cannot provide for themselves, providing managerial and secretarial services, and the list goes on. From this side of the house, on this International Volunteer Day I would like to thank them all for all the work they do for our community.

International Volunteer Day

MR CONNOLLY (4.51): From this side of the house, we echo and endorse what the Chief Minister said about Volunteer Day but also point out that - - -

Mrs Carnell: But Mr Berry left.

MR CONNOLLY: Other members of the Government were out while you were speaking. People chop and change. We also put on the record that the Volunteer Centre, which has existed as a purely voluntary organisation, was set up, allocated resources and funded during a period of Labor government, and long may it continue.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Assembly adjourned at 4.51 pm

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