National Volunteer Week

Ms COOK (Fisher) (15:14): I rise today to speak about volunteers week and the huge contribution that unpaid workers make to our economy, our culture and our natural environment. As members may well know from attending volunteer week events themselves, South Australia is home to 900,000 volunteers.

Each week these generous individuals donate 1.7 million hours of their time and service to our community worth many millions of dollars a year to our economy. Put simply, our economy would grind to a halt without them or we would be paying incredible taxes to maintain our current standard of living. These South Australians do not have to give their time and skills; they choose to. They make the decision to give up their time and contribute their expertise, often at their own financial detriment, in order to assist others and make our state an even greater place to be.

As a nurse, I have often worked alongside volunteers in the health sector. They make our hospitals better places at times when patients and families are at their most stressed. They make our lives as health professionals easier too, in particular the Flinders Medical Centre volunteers. I have also been in contact with our many volunteer first responders, who do not walk away from tough and sometimes frightening situations.

As a mother, I work with volunteers in our schools and also in my role as a parliamentarian with many governing councils, community and sporting groups. Without volunteers, our kids would not have the opportunities they have. Of course, prior to being in this place, I was a founder of a charity, the Sammy D Foundation. We had lots of volunteers who did amazing work and they continue to do so, educating our young people about the perils of drinking alcohol, taking drugs and also about making better choices. Every day, as a member of parliament, I work with volunteers at a myriad of local, state and national organisations. Many volunteers hail from my neck of the woods: the electorate of Fisher and the new electorate of Hurtle Vale. I thank them for their work

I would like to pay tribute today to a group that we do not often hear about, a group that works tirelessly to make sure that our natural spaces, our parks and reserves, are beautiful places to spend time with our families. I attended the Friends of Parks AGM last week at the Morialta Conservation Park Resource Centre with the member for Bright. I was thrilled to help present their annual awards and scholarships in that wonderful place.

One of the Friends of Parks organisations I would like to quickly mention today is the Friends of Shepherds Hill Recreation Park. They are working to control feral olives. With the help of 80 teenagers, they have removed two tonnes of rubbish from the creek. The Friends of Onkaparinga Park, affectionately known as FOOP, recently celebrated their 30^th anniversary. The occasion was marked with a bus tour. Some of their achievements over the last three decades are quite incredible. Life membership was given to Fae and Jim Trueman. This group has revegetated with a 90 per cent survival rate and continues to fight the good fight against the ravages of the tree prickly pear.

I have spent time with the Friends of Scott Creek. They have stripped out enormous amounts of feral blackberries throughout the creeks, which are choking out the natural vegetation. The biodiversity that is returning to the creek bed is absolutely incredible. The Friends of Belair National Park celebrated their 125^th anniversary. I met up with a few of those people at an open day at Belair National Park not long ago.

I also attended the Burnside Rotary annual awards with the member for Bragg and the member for Bright, where I presented an award to the Raine family for volunteering. The Raine family—Barb, Alan and Steve and also my old nursing friend Peter—volunteer tirelessly at Belair National Park. I cannot speak more highly about them and the things they do, such as planning, guiding free walks, maintaining the group's Facebook page, driving minibus tours. They also organise weeding working bees. It is a fantastic thing that they do. Also, well done to Alex McLeod from the Friends of Moana Sands Conservation Park, who was a finalist in those awards. That conservation park is just beautiful. I spent a lot of my childhood down there.

To volunteer is in many ways selfless, but it is also something that delivers great personal benefits. Whether it is improving skills, making community connections, or feeling a sense of worth and inclusion, there is a lot to be gained. Paid job opportunities can also often arise from volunteering. The theme for volunteer week, 'Give Happy, Live Happy', really reflects that we can get so much personal satisfaction from giving ourselves and our time. Thank you to all the volunteers for the work that they do in our community.