Australian Red Cross

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. R.B. Martin:

That this council—

1. Recognises that 2024 marks the 110^th year of the Red Cross in Australia;

2. Acknowledges the significant humanitarian assistance provided by the Red Cross to some of Australia’s most vulnerable people over the last 110 years; and

3. Commends all past and present Red Cross employees, members and volunteers for their service.

(Continued from 13 November 2024.)

The Hon. J.S. LEE (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (20:26): I rise today on behalf of the Liberal opposition to support the Hon. Reggie Martin's motion to acknowledge the special milestone of the 110^th anniversary of the Australian Red Cross.

Honourable members may remember that I moved a similar motion in 2022 to recognise the significant humanitarian assistance provided by the Australian Red Cross and to highlight some of the incredible programs and services supporting refugees, asylum seekers and migrant communities across Australia. It is my privilege today to add my appreciation to acknowledge the dedicated employees, members and volunteers who serve the Australian Red Cross and support its vital programs.

I would like to take a moment also to acknowledge my brother-in-law Dr Yew-Wah Liew who has worked for the Australian Red Cross for more than 34 years. He is a very dedicated professional like many of his colleagues working for the Australian Red Cross. My brother-in-law manages the Red Cell Reference Laboratory unit in Brisbane and he has often mentioned to me that he is very impressed by the blood donation drives held by so many multicultural groups each year. This is very important for a multicultural country like Australia.

The Lifeblood program is just one of the many vital services that the Australian Red Cross provides to support the most vulnerable members of our community, often in their time of greatest need. For a brief snapshot of the scale of the Red Cross's impact across Australia, according to the 2023-24 annual report more than 18,000 members and volunteers and over 5,500 employees worked with the Red Cross to support our community in the last year; there were 70 emergency activations across the country; 213,000 people received support before, during and after disasters; over 47,000 people received preparedness information and attended disaster resilience activities, including workshops, training, community initiatives and events; and 23,600 people from 129 countries received help through Red Cross migration support programs in Australia.

I want to take this opportunity to again thank and commend Jai O'Toole, the Executive Director of State and Territory Operations and South Australian Director of the Australian Red Cross. Jai and his team continue to do an outstanding job leading Red Cross operations across the state with a specific focus on migration, emergencies and service development.

As the shadow minister I have met so many wonderful organisations that have benefited from the work done by the Red Cross to assist our diverse multicultural communities. I have personally witnessed firsthand how Red Cross has been involved with helping migrants and refugees overcome barriers to employment with support both for jobseekers and employers, connecting migrants with English language courses, training and education, digital literacy training and job-matching services.

I have also witnessed that Red Cross offers aid to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in transition, ensuring that they receive the support needed to integrate into Australian society. This includes tracing and reconnecting families who have lost contact as a result of conflict and disaster and providing financial support to temporary visa holders and those who have an uncertain visa status.

Another program I would like to particularly highlight today is the Health in My Language program, which was launched in 2022. The Australian Red Cross received commonwealth government funding to partner with the Multicultural Centre for Women's Health to train bilingual health educators to deliver in-language education sessions to community groups and multicultural organisations in South Australia. All the bilingual educators are women, enabling migrant and refugee women to communicate comfortably and confidentially about important health topics and empowering them to access health information and services.

Once again, in concluding, I would like to thank the Hon. Reggie Martin for moving this motion and providing us the opportunity to congratulate and acknowledge the Red Cross on its 110^th anniversary and once again sincerely thank everybody at the Red Cross for their amazing work and their impact in making a significant difference in the lives of vulnerable South Australians. I commend the motion to the chamber.

The Hon. R.B. MARTIN (20:31): I will start by thanking the Hon. Jing Lee for her contribution and for her family's contribution to the Red Cross, which was a fantastic thing to learn. When I was first elected as a member of parliament the very first visit I did was to the Red Cross. I learnt a lot about their operations. When I first met them they used the term 'Bloods and floods' to describe what everyone thinks they do—that is, that they do the blood drives and they help people in their times of crisis when there are floods and bushfires and things like that. But they do so much more and help so many people in so many ways.

If memory serves, they had about 1,500 volunteers working for them, making an enormous contribution to South Australia. So I thought it was worthy of acknowledging their service to the South Australian community across 110 years. I thank all of their leadership and their team and particularly the volunteers who do all the amazing work serving the community.

Motion carried.