Page 4649 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 November 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Ms Porter: Mrs Dunne, I did not say that.
MRS DUNNE: I am not having a conversation with you, Ms Porter. You can say something else at another time. What I am saying, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, is that Ms Porter is using volunteers and volunteering for very base purposes. The woman is almost a one hit wonder in this place. The only thing she can actually talk about for the most part is volunteering. But when it comes to base political motives, what she is doing here is dragging these people down in her paltry, venal game of attempting to gainsay the federal government.
Members opposite do not like what the federal government is doing. The federal government is attempting to get people out of welfare and into work so that there will be fewer poverty traps. There are many hurdles to cross before we, as a nation, achieve that, but all we have here is carping from the Labor Party, saying, “The wicked Liberal-National Party government of the commonwealth is doing this, so it must be bad.” We have had the same thing here today, we had it yesterday, and we will invariably have it for the rest of the life of this parliament. This member and the other backbench members opposite in particular spend their time doing the bidding of Bomber Beazley, because he cannot do it, by endeavouring to undermine any good work that is attempted to be done by the commonwealth government. It is of great shame to Ms Porter that she has used this debate today to undermine the work of volunteers. Instead of extolling the virtues of volunteers, she just used it for base political gain.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella—Leader of the Opposition) (5.22): All members agree that volunteers are an important part of the Canberra community, and it is a shame that the Labor Party, through Ms Porter, have used the opportunity of what should have been a speech from all of us, lauding volunteers for what they do, as another Trojan Horse to attack the Howard government. They seem to have been obsessed by the Howard government over the last three or four months, and over the last couple of weeks in particular.
The important thing here is that we do not lose sight of what the volunteers do, because, if the unpaid contributions of volunteers were transferred in economic terms across to any jurisdiction, let alone the ACT, they would, of course, cripple all of our budgets. That is why it is important that we create an atmosphere, create an environment, to give to volunteers and their organisations the sort of support that they deserve. Coming up to International Volunteers Day on 5 December, it is important that we remember that Canberra has, against all statistics, the highest level of volunteerism in the country, and that is a fantastic achievement. It is fantastic because what it shows is that we have a community that people value, and then, beyond that, that we have a community and the infrastructure in place to allow people to volunteer.
One of the beauties of Canberra, and one of the reasons that we have a high level of volunteerism beyond the natural concerns that we hold for each other, is the very ease of volunteering, and that in large part is because of the built infrastructure and encouragement given over years by successive governments. All governments have done it. Let us not try to claim and point-score here off each other. The point is that successive governments have understood and valued volunteering, and that is what we should be
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .