Page 3176 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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in volunteering that are being observed nationally. As I said before, these trends can be seen reflected around the world. There is a shift towards ad hoc and project based volunteering. Volunteers report being time poor due to family and work commitments, which disinclines them to ongoing volunteering or regular volunteering on a day to day basis, choosing more episodic and project based volunteering.
In the Community Services Directorate, corporate programs are more likely to succeed when there are dedicated people to advocate for the program. In a tight fiscal environment, this has become a challenge. The ACT government is in the early days of considering other innovative funding models for social outcomes, such as institutional investor and philanthropic models.
Considerable attention is being directed to the human services blueprint, an approach to service system transformation, which is being trialled in my electorate in the west Belconnen region of Canberra and which involves the government and community sectors working together to integrate local services, including governance, funding, service coordination and data sharing. This work will necessarily include the valuable contribution of volunteers.
Madam Speaker, at the world conference delegates heard from speakers and participants in plenaries and workshops from over 26 countries and from a number of backgrounds, including business, academia, practitioners, managers, all levels of government, former members of the judiciary and representatives of the United Nations, to mention a few. They called on us to challenge ourselves as volunteers and those who work with volunteers, as well as challenge the media, governments and businesses to recognise the value of volunteer effort and its power for change.
In closing, I believe we need to challenge ourselves here in the ACT. Therefore I call on the government to review and update the ACT volunteering statement to take account of developing trends and challenges in the 21st century. I commend my motion to the Assembly.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (6.10): I rise to support Ms Porter’s motion today. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak about the importance of volunteers in our community, and the difference they make to so many.
We all know that with busy lives it can be hard to find time to volunteer, but we should never underestimate the valuable role that is played by volunteers in our community. Volunteers make a valuable contribution to society in both economic and social terms. Volunteers allow organisations to allocate their often-limited finances elsewhere.
The ABS general social survey conducted in 2010 estimated 6.4 million adults, or 36 per cent of the population, do voluntary work each year across Australia. Willingly giving time to do work for an organisation or community group on an unpaid basis can be rewarding for the individual, and it can extend and enhance their social networks.
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