National Volunteer Week

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:24): We have already heard that this week is National Volunteer Week. During this week, thousands of events are being held across Australia to celebrate the more than six million Australians who volunteer. Nationally, volunteers make an overall economic and social contribution that is the annual equivalent of $290 billion. Here in South Australia, the work of volunteers equates to well over 100,000 jobs' worth—in the order of $5 billion each year—but it is not solely about fiscal equivalence and measurable results.

This year's theme for National Volunteer Week, aptly, is Give Happy, Live Happy. Reasons for volunteering are well known. Giving back to the community, learning new skills, alleviating personal isolation, furthering a particular interest and indeed simple altruism are among them. The advantages for individuals and groups who are assisted by volunteers are equally manifest. Studies show that volunteers are happier and healthier both physically and mentally than the general populace, and I can certainly understand why.

Just this week, I hosted a morning tea for justices of the peace in my electorate. All give their very essential services voluntarily. Many have been doing so for decades and many also give of their time and expertise to other groups and organisations. I am thinking about just one of those JPs—a vibrant, involved woman who also works with women in prisons.

I will speak about her on another occasion in more detail, but at the morning tea she spoke about an initiative dear to her heart whereby prisoners are recorded reading books to their children, and the CD of the mother's voice and the fresh new book are given to those children to keep. Some mothers in prison have never read a story, and some of their children have never had a story read to them. I do not need to spell out the significance of this project for the families involved and more broadly in terms of inclusion, literacy and, we hope, a reduction in recidivism.

Volunteering is essential to building strong and resilient communities. We know it encourages economic participation, mitigates isolation and loneliness and it can increase social inclusion and community participation. It can also be a pathway to employment, with volunteers building valuable works skills and developing personally and professionally from their involvement with their organisations.

There are many volunteer organisations and there are also many organisations that rely on volunteers to exist. Across the state, we have football, netball, soccer, basketball and many other sporting clubs that rely on volunteer coaches, team managers, committee members and those who help out in canteens. In our schools, we have parent volunteers on our governing councils and those who help out with working bees, in libraries and with after school and weekend sporting activities.

There are also many organisations, including churches, men's sheds, Neighbourhood Watch groups, Meals on Wheels, Scouts, RSL, Lions, Rotary and Probus clubs and many more that contribute to our community in a voluntary capacity. Then there are the interest groups and clubs that exist through the dedication of volunteers—horticultural groups, music groups and environmental groups, who work rescuing wildlife or planting trees. In our hospitals, there are volunteers who play a significant role. There are also those who volunteer with our emergency services and in our museums, art galleries and even the Adelaide Zoo.

Today, in National Volunteer Week, I acknowledge and thank the many volunteers who give so generously of their time, particularly those who volunteer in the electorate of Torrens and in the various organisations and clubs within that electorate. The contribution of the volunteer organisations and those who volunteer is indeed priceless.