Page 2162 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 August 2014
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(c) continue to support the independent, neutral and impartial humanitarian mission of Red Cross to work with and assist the most vulnerable people in need, both in Australia and internationally. (Notice given 6 August 2014. Notice will be removed from the Notice Paper unless called on within 8 sitting weeks—standing order 125A.)
I am very pleased to rise this morning in support of a greatly respected organisation. It is an organisation that for 100 years has played a significant role in responding to the needs of local communities right across Australia, whether in the form of recovery from natural disasters or helping vulnerable groups overcome disadvantage. It is an organisation that on a daily basis provides care to families and individuals when and where it is needed most.
Madam Speaker, this motion is about celebrating the centenary of the Australian Red Cross, and in doing so acknowledging the valuable contribution that the Red Cross and its volunteers make to the Canberra community. It is also a motion that the Red Cross is endeavouring to have passed by every parliament in Australia and one that I am pleased to say has the support of all parties in the Assembly.
As many members will already be aware, the Red Cross began as an organisation in Australia nine days after the outbreak of World War I on 13 August 1914. The organisation, known then as the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross Society, saw hundreds of thousands of volunteers sign up during World War I and was Australia’s largest charitable organisation by the breakout of World War II. Nearly half a million people, mostly women, were Red Cross members from a population of seven million.
Today there are around one million Red Cross members, consisting of volunteers, donors, staff, blood donors, recipients and supporters who work to make a positive difference to the lives of people in need every single day. Nationwide, this work ranges from disaster relief and providing breakfast to thousands of kids who would otherwise go to school hungry, to making daily phone calls to elderly people and to empowering young people to reduce the harm of alcohol and drug use.
Here in the ACT, Madam Speaker, the Red Cross is a movement with a proud history of service, a history that dates back to a meeting that was called to form the ACT division of the Red Cross in February of 1928, shortly after the federal parliament had moved to Canberra in 1927. This meeting took place in the Albert Hall and was chaired by Major-General Sir Neville Howse VC, formerly the Director-General of Medical Services of the Australian Army.
The then secretary of the Australian Red Cross Society, Miss Philadelphia Robertson, flew from Melbourne to Canberra to attend the meeting in an open cockpit plane which, on its arrival in Canberra, landed on what is now the Ainslie oval. In February 1988, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ACT division, the event was re-enacted at the Albert Hall.
The history of the Red Cross in the ACT includes a long list of important community services that deliver real outcomes for many families within the community, including our local blood collection service, first-aid training and disaster and personal support services, to name but a few.
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