Page 3179 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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shops and give it a real community feel. They have been doing a range of things at the Curtin shops, and particularly in getting ready for their 50th birthday party in October, which I know all members have been invited to.
With the recent ministerial reshuffle I have had more to do with another group, although I had been aware of their activities for some time—the Friends of the Arboretum, a group that has been running for a number of years and which is very successful. They do a huge amount of marketing work for the arboretum, and recently produced a book—the Arboretum Book. The friends are now doing tree audits, counting and evaluating each tree, and also helping with art projects at the arboretum. The thing they are perhaps best known for is guiding people around the arboretum, sharing their passion and sharing their knowledge of that institution.
Having recently also, as part of the ministerial reshuffle, taken over the sport portfolio, this is one area where again it is just impossible to quantify the contribution of volunteers every single weekend and, for that matter, through the week quite a bit as well. Volunteers are out there making an enormous contribution, and giving people right across the age spectrum the opportunity to participate in sport and recreation events.
Quite recently I know a couple of members went to the game that Tuggeranong United played in the FFA Cup, up against Melbourne Victory. It was a big deal. More than 5,000 people turned up for the game. I was there right until the end. In fact afterwards I was chatting to a few people, and once the crowd had cleared the volunteers turned up, and they started picking up all the rubbish that had been left behind. Some of them were what can only be described as young girls. I suspect they were 14 or 15, and obviously part of Tuggeranong United, through to much older members of the club. It was great to see them doing that at what was otherwise essentially a large-scale football match.
There are many other areas in the social sphere across the community. I have in recent times taken to saying that people who say Canberra is boring simply are not trying. There are so many community groups to be involved in, whether it is some of the areas I have already mentioned or some other areas.
I refer to the various medical support groups that exist in our community across the full spectrum of human conditions, be they carers or perhaps people more specifically fundraising for a particular condition or providing a support group for a particular condition. Ms Lawder mentioned some of those in the list she spoke of. There is simply an enormous level of contribution going on out there.
Volunteering delivers quite a range of benefits to the community, both the expertise and time that people put in while filling the gaps that government and other agencies cannot easily fill or which perhaps are not well filled by government. And there are the community organisations who promote volunteer activity and advocate to the government and put the case on behalf of volunteers.
It is hard to sum up all of that, having made those few brief remarks. I will conclude by saying, as I am sure all of us will in this place, that we simply thank those that give
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