Grievance Debate

National Volunteer Week

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:07): This week is National Volunteer Week. I would like to recognise the 600,000 or so South Australians who volunteer on a regular basis. We talk about the value of volunteering but it is interesting to read some recent work that has been done by Dr Lisel O'Dwyer from Flinders University. Dr O'Dwyer's research into volunteering estimates that volunteering in Australia nationally is worth $290 billion a year. That is a massive figure in anybody's calculation, so valuing our volunteers has just taken a huge leap forward; that is 290 billion reasons why we should be valuing our volunteers each and every day.

If we work on the normal 8 per cent of South Australia's share, that is about $23 billion, but the 600,000 volunteers of the estimated six million volunteers that we have in Australia is 10 per cent, so the South Australian effort is about $29 billion—that is, $29,000 million each and every year. That is a massive figure and as Dr O'Dwyer points out in her evaluation:

According to the latest report, the economic contribution of volunteering to Australian society surpasses revenue sources from major sectors including mining, agriculture, defence and retail.

When you put it in those terms, volunteering is more valuable than mining, more valuable than defence, more valuable than agriculture, and more valuable than retail. This is why each and every member in this place needs to value our volunteers.

We are all involved with volunteers in our own electorates, whether they are the service clubs, such as Rotary and Lions, whether they are going out and serving meals with Meals on Wheels, or whether it is through church groups. The latest down at Glenelg was the men's breakfast before ANZAC Day and, of course, on ANZAC morning the Salvation Army was down there serving the gunners breakfast. If it were not for the volunteers where would the thousands of sporting clubs we have in South Australia be? Where would South Australia be? Where would all of those aspiring athletes be if it were not for the volunteers?

Of course, let's not forget the other very lovable volunteers, the Lavender Ladies and others, who help out in our hospitals. The Lavender Ladies and other volunteers go into our hospitals and provide comfort, solace and companionship. They provide a service which you cannot put a dollar on, but let me just remind the house that the value of volunteers is $290 billion a year nationally. That is an enormous figure. We have heard figures in the past of about $5 billion a year used as recently as two or three years ago when valuing volunteering, but when you look at the value of volunteering—the emotional value, the lives saved, the whole impact of volunteering—it has increased exponentially.

Volunteers across the community, whether they are tourist guides, in the schools, with disability groups, or the volunteers that pop up when a community event is on, are people we continually need to admire and value in this place.

Interestingly, a comment on modern volunteering is that younger people nowadays are looking to more specifically commit to a particular event for a particular time period, rather than to join an organisation. I know Rotary are looking at ways that they can improve their membership because they have a decline. We have seen declining numbers of CFS volunteers because of changes in lifestyles and changes in the demographics of suburbs. The regions and rural areas are changing as towns are getting smaller and properties are getting bigger. The effect on volunteering is something we cannot overlook, so we need to value our volunteers.

I will finish off by saying that part of valuing our volunteers is making volunteering easier, so why is this government department not using at least one of the private firms that I know of who can provide volunteer checks within one hour? I spoke to a man this morning who has a service and he has offered it to the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion. They will do 75 per cent of volunteer checks within one hour. He said to me that 97 per cent of checks can be done without secondary checks. Why can't this government do that when this particular firm is being used by other South Australian government departments? They are used by the federal Attorney-General's Department as well. They are able to prove they are accredited. Why does this government not value volunteers and help them volunteer?