Page 1859 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Volunteering Australia says that over 700 million hours are given each year in unpaid volunteer work and that 34 per cent of the adult population engage in voluntary activities. The statistics are impressive. Over 25 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds, and nearly 40 per cent of the 25 to 44 and the 45 to 54 age groups, volunteer their time. Nearly 25 per cent of people aged 65 and older also give of their time in one form of organisation or other, be it sports, education, community, welfare or church group. A significant 44 per cent of people aged between 35 and 44 volunteer—the highest participation rate of any age group.
But none of that really surprises me. I frankly do not know of anyone who does not do some form of volunteer work, whether it is fundraising, volunteering at the local school in the canteen or the classroom, assisting a local church or sporting group, acting as a community driver for the elderly to attend medical appointments or to take them shopping for essentials, planting trees, feeding the homeless or working at the RSPCA.
Indeed, how much junior sport would go ahead each and every weekend in Canberra if it were not for the mums and dads and big brothers and sisters acting as lines people, referees, coaches and team managers, offering to open up the grounds, serve in the canteen or wash the team uniforms after the game? My local football club, the Brindabella Blues, hold their presentation days at the end of each season. Due to their great numbers of junior players, they have to start at 8.30 am and generally finish around 5 pm. I take pride in spending my whole Saturday with them to present each player in each team with their trophies.
I know that I am not the only one in the Assembly that attends to these pleasant tasks a number of times each year and the example I give is the time spent with just one club and in just one sport. Multiply that across the hundreds of clubs across over 40 sporting associations and they are quite significant contributions that are made by all of us in this Assembly.
Without that much-needed free commitment, organisations such as the RSPCA, St Vincent de Paul, Red Cross, the Salvation Army—the list is endless—would all struggle to deliver the much-needed services that they provide to the needy and the disadvantaged in our society.
While it is difficult to single out one particular group over another, I do think it is important to acknowledge the enormous volunteer force that helped make the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games the best games ever. Who will ever forget the 50,000 volunteers who were evident everywhere in Sydney and in force at every Olympic venue and event? They provided great assistance to games visitors and did it willingly and with a smile.
Certainly in Canberra the volunteer commitment to deliver Olympic football at Canberra Stadium was impressive. There were over 600 committed and enthusiastic volunteers. Significantly, 10 years after the event those volunteers are still staging reunions. We had one in September of last year that celebrated their commitment and involvement and the personal joy and satisfaction it brought to them. Surely that is the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video