Page 1862 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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(b) the ACT Government to support all ACT public servants to utilise their community service leave each year; and
(c) the Members of this Assembly to voluntarily take an active role in supporting and taking part in volunteer opportunities in the ACT.”.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (6.30): I thank Ms Porter for this motion today. Volunteers and the services they perform are vital to the ACT community. We have already heard from Ms Porter and Mr Doszpot some figures on the level of volunteering in Australia—34 per cent of the total population volunteer. That is around 5.4 million people. This includes around 94,000 people in the ACT. As has already been noted, we have one of the highest rates of volunteering in the country, with 32 per cent of our total population involved in some form of voluntary work.
Canberrans are out there every day running sports events, providing food for the homeless and passing on skills and advice to everyone from primary school children to seniors studying at the University of the Third Age. Without them, as Mr Doszpot has already said, Canberra would be a much less interesting and inclusive place.
Every not-for-profit organisation owes its continued existence to the efforts of an army of volunteers who answer the phones, sort the donations and run the fundraising events which make all that work possible. Who can imagine a Canberra without the RSPCA, which works so hard to protect the animals in this town and to re-home lost and abandoned pets? How many people have the staff of Lifeline saved with their counselling service and, coincidentally, how many of us could manage without the wonderful Lifeline book fairs that keep us in reading matter throughout the year? How many of us would like to face a typical summer without the fact that the volunteer firefighters are there to help protect us from the threat of bushfires?
These are only a few of the many organisations which provide vital services to our community. The fact is that the Canberra we know could not exist without the generous donation of time and expertise that our volunteers provide. As our population ages, volunteering has a double role to play. Many of our volunteers are older people who have retired from paid employment but still want to make a contribution. Their work benefits the community twice: firstly, the actual value of the work itself; and, secondly, their involvement contributes to their own wellbeing by keeping them active and socially connected.
Community organisations are an essential element in promoting volunteer activities. People who have taken part in activities through clubs and societies often aspire to become volunteers themselves. In fact, knowing where to go to volunteer can be more difficult than actually doing the volunteer work. This is where organisations such as Volunteering ACT are so important. They provide an avenue for those who would like to help but do not really know where to start. They also provide support for both volunteers and organisations with advice and skills training so that organisations can find the people they need and people can find the voluntary work that they want and that suits them.
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