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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-08 Daily Xml
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Motions

International Volunteer Day

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:03): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes that on 5 December 2022 we celebrate International Volunteer Day;

(b) acknowledges the valuable contribution that volunteers made to the economic and social wellbeing of local communities; and

(c) calls on all South Australians to thank and show their appreciation to all volunteers in our community.

I see firsthand the power of volunteering everywhere I go in my community. Volunteers are more than just the time they give; they are vital in creating connected and inclusive communities all across the state. It is something that I personally want to instil in my own children; it is why my almost four-year-old son, Ned, joins me on my regular Meals on Wheels shift.

Just last Friday, he came along with me and my Uncle Roger, my delivery buddy, to deliver meals across my local community. There is a reason that Meals on Wheels is more than just a meal: seeing the joy on clients' faces when little Ned wanders up with their soup and their shepherd's pie is really something that money cannot buy. I hope that the memories and lessons that my son takes away from this will instil in him a love of volunteering and giving back.

After Meals on Wheels on Friday, I then headed to the Lions Club of Prospect and Blair Athol barbecue at the Soldiers' Memorial Gardens playground in Prospect for the annual Twilight Sessions concert, which is held every Friday in February. There was Roy on the fryer, serving up his famous hot chips. He will tell you that the crunch has to be just right before we can give them to customers. There was Gary flipping his famous pancakes, Prospect councillor Jason Nelson on the snags and steak sandwiches, and I joined the former member for Adelaide, Rachel Sanderson, in serving customers. I think that is the wonderful thing about volunteering: it does not matter what your background, your differences or your political stripes are; it just matters that you show up and that you give back for the greater good.

At the recent City of Prospect Citizen of the Year Awards, three amazing local women, who I am also proud to call my friends, were recognised for their volunteering efforts. The 2023 Citizen of the Year Award went to Nola Bellenger, who was nominated by her club, the Eagles Lacrosse Club, which I am also a proud patron of. Nola has a long history of raising money for various charities, community groups and organisations. She is known as the woman who gets the job done, and she has been instrumental in Eagles fundraising programs and social activities.

I had the pleasure of attending one of her organised events, the Eagles Lacrosse Club quiz night last year, and up there with being elected as the member for Adelaide was taking out that quiz night with some of my friends in the community. Nola is also the owner of Healthy Inspirations in Prospect, which specialises in supporting women and looking after their health. She is an asset not only to the Eagles Lacrosse Club but to our broader community in Prospect.

Our 2023 Active Citizenship Award in Prospect went to Eleanor Larwood, or 'Ellie', as I call her. She was nominated for her volunteering efforts with the Eagles Lacrosse Club, in particular for her amazing social media abilities. She has been active in planning and running club events, including gala days and the quiz night, and her support, involvement and innovation also saw her honoured with her own club spirit award. She is only 22, and in those 22 years Eleanor has already given back so much to her community and is such an amazing role model to her peers.

The Community Event of the Year Award in Prospect went to another amazing volunteer in our community, Steph Reddy. She is an organiser of Santa Comes to Prospect. I will always find any opportunity to jump on my red Vespa and ride around my community. It is such a joy every Christmas when we get to ride Santa around the town, dropping into various businesses. This event has become such an exciting fixture on our local community's calendar, and it is all down to Steph. She puts in countless hours, so much effort, in bringing the Christmas spirit alive in Prospect. She also during the year runs pop-up markets in Vine Street Plaza. She really does not ever rest, and she is such an incredible asset to our community.

I also want to mention the Young Citizen of the Year in our community, Amelia Smith, who was nominated for her volunteer work at the Broadview Uniting Church. She is responsible for the creation of the Treasures Op Shop, she runs retail training programs for underemployed youth to develop life skills and job readiness, and over the last 10 years has also volunteered in youth and children's services, the Green Team, Seeds of Affinity and protecting indigenous families' cultural traditions, all while also studying midwifery. These are countless hours devoted to volunteering, and it is so wonderful hearing stories like that coming from young people in our community. These are just some of the individual stories of volunteering, but you will find more of these stories in every street, town, suburb, city, state, country and continent all across the world.

Across our state, collectively, South Australian volunteers contribute an estimated 1.7 million hours of unpaid work each year. The value of that unpaid labour is estimated at almost $5 billion, which is just incredible. The Malinauskas government is committed to fostering a thriving, diverse culture of South Australian volunteering now and into the future. I want to encourage volunteers of all ages and all walks of life to contribute their skills, their time and their expertise in innovative ways that respond to our changing community and create a stronger and better connected community. With that, I commend the motion to the house.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:10): It is with much pleasure that I discuss the motion on International Volunteer Day:

That this house—

(a) notes that on 5 December 2022 we celebrate International Volunteer Day;

(b) acknowledges the valuable contribution that volunteers made to the economic and social wellbeing of local communities; and

(c) calls on all South Australians to thank and show their appreciation to all volunteers in our community.

As has already been outlined by the member for Adelaide, the contribution of volunteers is such a valuable contribution to the whole of society no matter at what level that is. It could be as small as helping your neighbour with a small job in the garden or taking their bins out, being a volunteer for either the State Emergency Service or the Country Fire Service, working with community groups such as Rotary or Lions or working with all sorts of aid groups helping those less fortunate.

I do commend the work that all volunteers do at whatever level. Certainly, over the summer we have seen so many volunteers right across the state step up to help people across the regions. Thankfully, as far as firefighting goes, we have not had the really big events. We have had multiple fires across the state, where again we have seen CFS volunteers—and there would have been SES volunteers—as well as farm firefighters battling blazes. We saw some great work done in the Hills fire recently, where the combination of firefighters on the ground plus the air tractors, the new Black Hawk helicopters, and the commitment of people made sure we got right on top of that situation in the Adelaide Hills, which could have been a lot worse.

Right across the board there have been fires across the state. Sadly, harvester fires seem to be a bit of an annual event and something that people have to be mindful of when they are harvesting. Lentils are a bit of an issue with the amount of dust that is built up around a machine. Sometimes things just happen, where a bearing might get hot or something else happens, and the next thing you have a fire on your hands. I must say, when talking with a lot of farmers these days about their firefighting capabilities, people have chaser bins now, the bins that follow up the harvesters, which can have up to 4,000 litres of water on board to have that instant firefighting task right in the field if something happens. That is so vital in the first instance.

Certainly, right up and down the river with the flood event that we have seen over the summer—and it is ongoing, even though we have passed the peak—there is a lot of work to do. I must commend all the volunteers, the many hundreds of CFS and SES volunteers and private volunteers, who have pitched in to do the work, to do the sandbag filling, to assist contractors building earthen banks. There are also the people feeding them, doing the simple things like getting the morning or afternoon teas or getting lunch.

It was great to assist the racing club at Murray Bridge with 36 tonnes of sandbags on top of the levee directly under the Swanport Bridge so they could keep a pump going with a generator once the power went off, as was always going to happen with the water level getting within 4.7 metres of the power lines, so that they could keep up the water to the racetrack. This gets down to an animal welfare issue, to make sure that the ground is watered appropriately for horses to race and train on, apart from drinking water for the horses and other things around the facility.

It was so good to see sandbagging stations at Murray Bridge. I remember one day at Mannum there were some guys who had just come up from Adelaide with the State Emergency Service to make sure they could do their bit to assist communities so that people could get their 20 sandbags. These guys had come up from Adelaide to assist and I really take my hat off to them.

These big events turn into a statewide issue. We have certainly seen it when we have had other big events such as the big fires on Kangaroo Island or even the regional fires, whether it be in the South-East or like those we had 2½ years ago with the Yumali-Netherton fire when the strike teams turned up from either the South-East or the Hills. I know they came from both places. In fact, I saw a truck from well south of Adelaide there at that time.

It shows the true spirit of South Australians and Australians, helping each other to make sure that the job gets done. If it does not happen through volunteers, it would cost whatever government is in charge an enormous amount of money. I believe the government would not be able to fund it. I think the volunteer hours averaged out close to $50 per hour, and that is just in a monetary sense without the sense of achievement that they are doing it for the community. That is something to be truly recognised and celebrated.

Talking about volunteers, there would also have been some paid staff involved in this. With the State Emergency Service, volunteers and paid people would have been involved in some of the swiftwater rescues that had to happen on the river. We had people come down from Queensland to assist with this. They were based in Murray Bridge, and I would say there is a crew still there. An extra helicopter came in from the Eastern States to assist with any potential rescues.

We had a couple of interesting characters—I have used other names such as 'clowns'—who decided to get on air mattresses at Ponde and go for a float. It seems like there are a lot of interesting things that happen out of Ponde. They got into trouble and the swiftwater rescue guys were there to protect them from their own folly. I really take my hat off to them.

We just would not function without the valuable work that volunteers do in whatever capacity. As I said earlier, it does not have to be in these capacities of firefighting or working in flood areas. There are people who volunteer in hospitals and aged care, helping people as they get older and bringing a smile to their face and making their life better.

It is such a good thing to support volunteers, and we need to keep doing it. We need to make sure that volunteers are always ready to come to the big frontline events, such as the flooding that has happened. As I said, there is a lot of work to be done. Some of the work, and I am sure some of this was in volunteer time, was with the pumps to dewater the area around Mannum, around Mary Ann Reserve, when the stormwater was flowing in. Council staff were making sure that the small motors were running at night.

I know I mentioned his name yesterday and you will get sick of me talking about him, but Ben Scales, the Chief Executive Officer of Mid Murray, did his shift manning those pumps at midnight on New Year's Eve for six hours to make sure that they had fuel in them so they could keep pumping the water that was seeping into Mary Ann Reserve and put it back over the levee bank into the river. I want to commend all volunteers. May people all keep volunteering long into the future at whatever level they volunteer at because we truly cherish your service.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (11:20): I rise in support of this motion and thank the member for Adelaide for moving it and drawing the house's attention to the importance of volunteers. Volunteers are the backbone of community, and I am fortunate to have so many volunteer groups in my electorate that offer so much to local residents. Just on the weekend, I attended the Friends of Belair National Park AGM, where they noted their combined volunteer hours for the year were 5,175, of which 3,579 involved active physical labour. This labour includes weed mitigation, planting and taking tours of the park. The group has 243 members, with 136 of those being active.

I have several Friends of Parks groups that operate around our community. The Friends of Belair National Park is just one. The Friends of Sturt Gorge, Friends of Shepherds Hill Recreation Park and Friends of Waite Conservation Reserve are others. We are fortunate to be blessed with several national parks and reserves, and these friends groups play such a vital role in preserving their natural environment.

Volunteering in nature gives one so many benefits. Not only are you helping maintain the parks for generations to come but you are preserving and improving habitat, reducing fuel in terms of bushfires and also allowing the native vegetation to have a chance. There are personal benefits also, including working in the fresh air and sunshine, being in nature and grounding oneself, and also having the opportunity to meet others with similar interests. Volunteers give a lot, but they also get a lot back in return. Our government understands the valuable contributions these friends groups make and it is why we made a commitment of $3 million to help them to continue that work.

Our parks are not the only things that benefit from volunteer spirit, though. Locally, we have active Rotary clubs in Blackwood, Coromandel Valley and Mitcham. What is great about Rotary is that they are always looking for ways to help not only our local community but further away and abroad. In my community, Rotarians work hard to raise money to help various charities and causes through sausage sizzles, their bookshop and other opportunities.

We also have a great group of volunteers in our Blackwood Lions Club. The Lions have their own bargain centre on Shepherds Hill Road, where many volunteers work on a Saturday morning unpacking donated goods and selling them on to the willing shopper. Last year, I spent a morning helping out, and through this process I learned that the Lions also have connections with various domestic violence shelters and assistance groups that often help set up homes for women and children escaping violence. They also help some of the displaced people who have come to our community from Ukraine by setting up houses for them too.

Our Lions and normally Rotarians come together to run our Blackwood Christmas Pageant, which my office had the privilege of assisting with late last year. It was a roaring success after a two-year hiatus, and with the help of many volunteers the community really enjoyed it. We are looking forward to the return of the post-pageant fair this year once our community centre has been completed.

Our community is lucky to also have a great group of volunteers who form the Blackwood Action Group. This group works tirelessly throughout Blackwood, keeping our gardens and garden beds looking great and giving our Stobie poles beautiful artwork. They work in the community. They work at the Coromandel Valley and Blackwood train stations, planting out the whole area and making it quite a beautiful view once you pull into the station.

I was very glad to help BAG, as they are affectionately known, last year to gain access to the freight platform in Coromandel Valley, something they had been trying to organise for quite some time. Along with a great group of volunteers, we worked hard to clear that platform because it had weeds and shrubs everywhere. New shrubs have been planted and it is now maintained. Now our train-travelling community can enjoy a much better view of that platform.

One should not forget the volunteers who work in our community centres, those who are on boards and those who chip in to keep the centres going, and volunteers who help out our sports teams across the whole community. Sports clubs would not be able to operate without the assistance of parents, players, grandparents, friends and others all volunteering their time to ensure sport is available.

We have volunteers from Zonta, from Blackwood Circle of Friends and those who form committees and working groups at our memorial halls and significant buildings such as Old Government House and Carrick Hill. They all contribute to keeping our amenities available and viable.

Volunteers are also active in our school communities. Whether they volunteer as readers, on kitchen gardens or on governing councils and parents and friends groups, everyone is giving their time to ensure our kids have a great experience at school. We have a wonderful group who work to support our more vulnerable and experienced members of society through Meals on Wheels. The volunteers who prepare and deliver the food are wonderful, and they also deliver a smile and a warm conversation to those in need.

Finally, I would never forget the volunteers who make up our CFS and our SES. These volunteers are something else, putting their lives on the line to protect our community day into night. Whether they are active or the support crew, the work that goes into being part of this family of volunteers is immense and our whole community thanks every single one of them.

A quick thank you to the volunteers who help me every day from the Labor sub-branch in Waite, whether it is out and about at various events like on the weekend at my bushfire forum, helping with BAG and Friends of Belair National Park groups, helping with JP services and around the office. I would especially like to thank ‘nanna’, as we affectionately call her in our office. Judy is my electorate officer Matt’s grandma, and she is often in our office helping stuff envelopes and the like, always with a smile and a joke. She is a real pleasure to have around, and I hope she knows how much we appreciate her.

I also just quickly acknowledge my mum and dad and my family, who continue to volunteer and help. Whether it is letterboxing, stuffing seeds into small envelopes or helping me recycle Christmas cards, all the volunteering that happens in our office is greatly appreciated.

Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes with different gifts to give our communities. Our community would not be able to function without their help, and so I take this opportunity to thank every single person who gives their time to help someone, something or some place be its best self. But volunteering gives something else. It actually gives the volunteer something, too: a feeling of satisfaction, a warm glow that they have helped, a contagious happiness that cannot be achieved by doing anything else. I wholeheartedly support this motion and, again, thank the member for Adelaide for moving it. I encourage everyone to find a way to volunteer.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (11:26): I, too, rise to add my support to this motion acknowledging International Volunteer Day and marking our appreciation for all of the good work that our volunteers do right across South Australia, but particularly in my contribution some of the good work that volunteers do in my local electorate of Bragg. Much like what we have heard from other members in this debate, the Bragg community is made by volunteers.

Volunteers almost literally touch every aspect of our life, whether it be volunteers who feed us—I think of Meals on Wheels and our thriving Burnside sub-branch—or whether it be volunteers who keep us safe, and we have heard a lot about our CFS volunteers today. I mark my appreciation to the Burnside CFS, who are a fixture at community events out in the eastern suburbs and Hills but also work tirelessly throughout summer and, indeed, all year round to put their lives on the line to keep us safe.

There are volunteers who keep us active and keep us social, and I think of the literally hundreds, possibly thousands of volunteers who are supporting our local sporting groups, whether it be the Glenunga Rams footy, cricket, netball and basketball clubs, or our two rugby clubs, Old Colls and Burnside rugby, or our thriving bowling clubs, hockey clubs and, of course, the Burnside Lacrosse Club. These clubs simply would not function without the support of an often small band of very dedicated and passionate volunteers.

There are volunteers who protect our environment. I am hugely conscious of the role that volunteers play as custodians of our natural environment and often on a really hyperlocal level. An example is the Environs Botanica group, which is setting out to improve the streetscape around the new Botanica apartments in the Glenside redevelopment by planting trees, and it was a pleasure to join them at one of their tree plantings recently.

On a slightly larger scale, we have the Friends of Cleland National Park, who do enormous work in that national park, and our schools, of course, play a role with young people volunteering their time to help our environment. It was a pleasure last year to attend Loreto College and plant one of their 200 trees that that community set out to plant throughout 2022. There have been literally hundreds and thousands of hours of volunteering across these areas.

There are three service clubs that I want to particularly acknowledge for their work in volunteering in our community. The first is the Lions Club of Burnside, which I was very pleased to be welcomed in as a member just before Christmas last year, in their 60th year as a club. That is 60 years of volunteering their time to serve our community in many different ways but perhaps most notably through their bargain centre at Glen Osmond, which is open on the first Saturday of every month and has many bargains for everyone, and something to appeal to everyone, whether it be toys or books, CDs or jewellery. It is a great place to be on a Saturday morning.

Again, none of that happens without the tireless work of volunteers, both manning that centre on a Saturday morning but also processing the goods that are being donated to the bargain centre. I mark my appreciation to the Lions Club of Burnside for the work that they do now and, indeed, have been doing for the last 60 years.

I want to particularly acknowledge just a few people on their executive, including the president, Rob Crookall; vice-president, Michael Neal; the secretary, Barry Taylor; the treasurer, Indira Seimon—and I think I might owe her some membership dues, which I am sure she will chase me up about after seeing this—the membership director, Tim Jordan; and the immediate past president, Michele Alexandrou. I thank Michele, in particular, for sponsoring my membership of the Burnside Lions Club.

Secondly, I want to acknowledge crosstown rivals, the Glenside Lions Club. They are a slightly younger club but by no means less active in our community across a wide range of areas. There have been two initiatives in particular where they have volunteered a lot of time and done a lot of good. The first is their annual Glenside Lions Art Show, which is something I was very pleased to support last year. It has been going for over 30 years now, and it has raised over $420,000 for charitable causes in our local community.

It is an incredible effort, just as their Bookmart is also an incredible effort. It has over 30,000 books on display at any time, so there really is something for everyone. Once again, it is staffed and organised entirely by volunteers. We could not have raised that $420,000 at that art show, we could not run a bookshop with 30,000 titles on display, without the dedicated work of these volunteers.

I want to also acknowledge their executive, including president John Standingford; vice-president, Alastair Birse; the secretary, Ron Glasson; the treasurer, Hayden Edwards; the membership chair and social coordinator, Frank Bowering; activities chair, Peter Keam; the Bookmart manager, Evan Jenkins; the art show director, Cathy Greven; lion tamer, Neil Thomson; and immediate past president, Alan Hook. I put on the record my sincere thanks for all of the thousands of hours of volunteering that small group of people have done to serve our local community.

Thirdly, I want to acknowledge the Rotary Club of Burnside, which has been serving our local community for nearly 50 years. It has also raised thousands of dollars through the efforts of their hard work, and I am sure it is going to raise thousands more with the arrival of their brand-new barbecue this year. I look forward to seeing that make its debut later in the year.

It serves our community so well, not just through those charitable actions but also through volunteering their time at, for example, a seniors' Christmas lunch that they put on every year for senior citizens in Burnside. It was a pleasure to attend that at the end of last year with about a hundred senior citizens from across Burnside sitting down for a Christmas lunch. I was lucky enough to play the role of barman at that event and I think my generous pours made me very popular with the local Rotary Club. Again, it does not happen without volunteers. That day was solely put together by volunteers and I put on the record my appreciation to all of them, particularly the co-presidents of that club—the M&Ms—Margie Maloney and Des Munro.

Australia Day was recently another opportunity to acknowledge some particular citizens who personify some of these qualities of volunteering in our local community, and I acknowledge a couple of them as well. The Burnside Citizen of the Year, Mr Graeme Gatley, volunteered and continues to volunteer for a plethora of organisations, including the Burnside Legacy Widows Group, the Burnside Justice of the Peace Service, St Matthew's Anglican Church, and he was also previously the Vice-President of the Kensington Park RSL. He has a very full volunteering schedule and was rightly recognised as a Citizen of the Year on Australia Day in Burnside.

Two young sisters, Penny and Amber Trappel, were awarded the Burnside Young Citizens of the Year, and they volunteered their time on two initiatives: firstly, applying for a grant to get a defibrillator at the Tusmore Wading Pool and, secondly, separately, to apply for a grant to install a rock swap shelf, which I am pleased to say is now also available in Tusmore Park, and being put to good use by our local community.

That is just a very brief snapshot of some of the volunteering work that is taking place locally in the eastern suburbs and the Hills. Our community simply would not function without the hard work of these really dedicated and passionate people volunteering their time, so on this International Volunteer Day, and indeed on all days, we mark our appreciation, and I am very pleased to support this motion.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (11:36): I think it is very important that the majority of people in this place stand and acknowledge the great work that volunteers do, whether it is in their electorate, whether it is statewide or internationally. I think they have a very, very important role to play but, in saying that, they make our communities a better place to live. They provide a better environment for the time that they give and the service that they provide to the common person here in South Australia.

Of course I want to talk about the great electorate of Chaffey and the volunteering base that is committed. They commit their precious time and their efforts towards making the Riverland and Mallee communities both safer, and of course they are a privilege to be a part of. The operation of many of the local organisations would not be possible without the dedication and the passion that volunteers put on display at every opportunity. If you are looking for a job to get done, and are looking for a volunteer to do it, normally people would say, 'Ask a busy volunteer. Ask a person that is busy to get the best that you can out of those volunteer bases.'

Sadly, over time, what we are seeing is that while we appreciate the volunteering of those individuals, we are seeing an ageing base of volunteers. So this is a call-out to those younger people, no matter what generation that you are from, to stand up and contribute to making society, to making your community a better place to live, work and enjoy.

As other speakers have said, we cannot put a value or a monetary number on the contribution by volunteers, but we do need to reach out and make sure that during times of uncertainty we have volunteer bases—whether it be through emergency services, whether it be through the CFS, the SES, all those volunteering groups—that come out and help.

We know that neighbours can be a great source of volunteering in times of crisis, whether it is fire, whether it is famine, whether it is flood, and of course the Riverland by and large, and particularly Chaffey, have experienced a significant challenge over the last six or even eight months knowing that we have had to prepare. We have used a lot of professional services to come in and better prepare for the flood, but we have seen a significant influx of volunteer hours put on display so that we can demonstrate how united our communities are.

I think particularly—I will speak on behalf of a regional community—that regional community volunteers are the fabric. They are the glue that keeps people together. They are the glue that keeps sporting clubs functioning. They are the glue that continues to go from strength to strength. There is nothing better than seeing Lions, Rotary, Apex, Probus, Legacy and all the rest of them with their sausage sizzles, raising money, out there cleaning up roadsides, out there planting trees or out there just doing one of the many, many roles that volunteers play. I say thank you to all of them.

Meals on Wheels is one of the great institutions. Every now and again, I jump in and help volunteer, delivering meals to those who are either ageing or less fortunate. I think it is a very valuable service, particularly to regional communities, because distance is the tyranny of a challenge. Many people in regional communities do not live next door to people; they live on a property, they live out of town, or they live some distance from a support service. I say thank you to every Meals on Wheels volunteer.

Sporting clubs: we could not go past thanking all the volunteers, whether it is a coach, whether it is a runner, whether it is someone on the sporting board or the sporting committee. They are also those less visible people who are there raising funds to keep those clubs afloat, making sure that the canteens are manned, making sure that the grounds are mowed and looked after and that the lines are there or the line marking is put in place. The list goes on for many, many of those sporting organisations.

I want to highlight the Cobdogla Steam Museum. It is home to the Humphrey pump, the only working Humphrey pump in the world. Sadly, this mean government has taken away the opportunity for the ongoing viability of this steam museum. It is an institution. It has a significant number of dedicated volunteers who continue to keep the artefacts and history alive, making sure that, as a volunteer base, they are looking after the only working Humphrey pump in the world, but they are now having that support funding taken away from them. I think it is an absolute crime. I say thank you for the great work that those volunteers are doing at the Cobby steam museum.

Recently, we have celebrated Citizen of the Year Awards, and there are many of them. I have a number of council areas that have given those awards out. Bert Haslam is the Loxton Citizen of the Year. He has done some great work through the Loxton Rotary Club, the footy club and also The Pines historic house and garden committee. Mr Ian Tolley has been around, and he has done it all. He is a great contributor, not only to the horticultural industry but through Lions and also the Chaffey Theatre complex development.

Glenys Matthews is the Berri Barmera Council Citizen of the Year. She is a great contributor through the Riverland Rose and Garden Festival as well as the Cancer Council, and is a Royal Flying Doctors volunteer. Carmel Wuttke is the Waikerie Citizen of the Year for Meals on Wheels. She is also a volunteer at the Rain Moth Gallery, Santa's cave, and, of course, the many music programs in that beautiful area.

Angela Lukacs is the Mid-Murray Council Citizen of the Year. She comes from Cadell. She is the Chairperson for the Riverland West Chamber of Commerce. She provides first-aid training to local non-profit organisations and she is an attendee at the Careers Expo event. Ian Wood is the District Council of Karoonda East Murray Citizen of the Year. He does a great job, particularly at the Karoonda farm fair and the show, and he is a regular volunteer at the sporting clubs.

I just want to say thank you to all the volunteers in the Riverland and Mallee. I want to say thank you to all the volunteers everywhere, right around the country. I also want to say to anyone that if you see a volunteer at work, just stop for a moment and say thank you and thank them for their commitment. Say thank you to them for making the community a place that is just a little bit better to live, work and play.

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (11:44): I rise to make a brief contribution, and I thank the member for Adelaide for her terrific motion. It obviously gives all of us an opportunity to highlight some of the wonderful work that is being done in our own communities. I thank the other speakers for highlighting some of those wonderful things that are happening so that the rest of us here can learn more about what is happening in each of your electorates and the wonderful people in them.

At the risk of making a serious faux pas in my community, there are a very large number of people who are doing amazing things but I thought I would take this opportunity just to call out one person in particular, who does not seek praise; he just gets on with it, and he has been pretty busy lately on a raft of different fronts.

His name is Jamie Morgan, and he is the junior and senior director of football at the Plympton Football Club. Not only has he managed to take his club to six premiership flags but he was also instrumental in making sure that the club won Juniors Club of the Year in the SANFL last year. I think it was about October that it was announced. Most recently, at the Australia Day awards for the Marion council he was announced as Sportsperson of the Year.

He was completely stunned at getting the nomination, but no-one else in the community was. We know that he works really, really hard. He is an industrious fellow, gets along with everyone and has some great ideas and he just gets down to work and achieves.

At the moment I am working with Jamie and also with members of the broader club in relation to the work they are doing with some exciting plans at the SAJC at the Morphettville Racecourse, which is looking to put sporting facilities, particularly football facilities, right in the middle of the track. It is an innovative use of land. It is not without its challenges, but he is instrumental in making sure that that can come to fruition, and we look forward to seeing that happen.

Another thing I have been delighted to work with Jamie on over the last year or two now is getting the funding for a planning study to look at how we can better utilise the land at Plympton Oval. Members would be familiar—many particularly in the suburban areas—with the challenges of a lack of green space and sporting fields and sporting arenas in our communities and the struggle of trying to provide those when we are so lucky to have popular clubs that have more and more people coming to play, particularly women.

It is a good problem to have but a challenging one to solve, and this club is taking the lead in trying to be innovative about finding and better utilising the spaces that they have for the benefit of our community. I was pleased to announce money has been set aside as part of our election commitments to produce a planning study to look at how land can be better used at Plympton Oval and in particular with a focus on how it can be made more accessible for the public and also how we can improve upon the clubhouse, which is getting on in years down there.

So I just want to say thank you so much to Jamie Morgan for all his hard work. Like I said, he is a bloke who does not seek praise, but he certainly deserves it. We congratulate him on his many awards and thank him deeply for his contribution to our community.

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (11:48): I rise to speak on the motion the member for Adelaide has put forward. I think it is a really critical one. We all in this house, regardless what side of the chamber we sit on, should pay our respects and acknowledge those people who work so tirelessly for their community and do so without seeking praise. I think that that is often rare in society. I think that there are many people who do acts of kindness and are looking for a pat on the back potentially in some areas, but on International Volunteer Day we do really celebrate those people who are volunteering their time willingly and knowing they will not be seeking a financial reward for doing so.

If I reflect on my own community—and I am so fortunate to represent what I believe is one of the best places in Australia in the Barossa Valley in the northern Adelaide Hills—we have so many passionate people who are focused on giving back to their community. It is done across a wide variety of areas. I am always amazed that I see the Lions Club at the footy gates on a weekend, or parents who are scrambling to think about what coaching drills they are going to be doing for their under-12 netball club, or whether they are helping out at some of the regional shows. These are some of the people who are giving back.

One thing that is often glossed over is that the volunteers in our community have busy lives as well. Volunteers do not do it as a full-time job; there are many who do, in retirement, but they are not being paid and they too are managing some family stresses, their own financial stresses, so it is fantastic that we are spending a moment today to reflect on all their contributions.

There is one person I would particularly like to acknowledge, and his name is Kaelan. He is from Birdwood, and I came across him when I was at the Gumeracha markets recently. He is a young man who is heading into year 10, and I was speaking to him on what was his last day of the school holidays. It was a Sunday, and I asked him what he had been up to on his school holidays. He advised that he had been working three jobs because he is trying to save up for a car; he cannot wait to get his L-plates. I asked him why he was volunteering as well on a Sunday, and he said, 'It's part of my family and it's part of who I am.'

I was so taken aback by the fact that this 16-year-old bloke, who had worked three jobs, was also giving back to his community. That is often glossed over with young people. There are a number of young people who want to give back to their community, and making sure they are aware of the opportunities is absolutely critical.

When we look at the percentage of people in our communities who volunteer, on average 25 per cent of people within our communities are putting themselves forward to do some volunteering. That is a remarkable statistic and represents their hard work and willingness to give back to their local communities. What I am not surprised about is that we often see a much higher rate of volunteering in regional communities, because of the sense of belonging and the sense of almost a duty to give back to your community that has done so much for you and provided an environment for you to really get ahead. I think that is fantastic.

Again, I would like to thank the member for Adelaide for putting forward this motion and give a big shout-out to all the volunteers in my local community who are spending their weekends, their evenings and their mornings giving back to the community. Thank you so much, because our area would not be the same without you.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (11:52): It is fair to say that volunteers provide the backbone of our state, especially within regional South Australia. South Australia has a proud tradition of people giving back to the community that goes back generations, especially within my region of Eyre Peninsula and my electorate of Flinders which has always had one of the highest percentages of volunteering numbers in the state when it comes to census data. As has been pointed out, over a quarter of the population within my electorate volunteer and give back to their community.

It is often a diverse group of people who volunteer and, as we acknowledge this motion about International Volunteer Day, it is really important to recognise that in regional South Australia, in particular, the foundation or the fabric of the community is built on volunteers. The emergency services are built around volunteers, and this is something I often have to remind my city cousins about. If an ambulance rocks up in your street needing to give attention to someone who is being medically or physically challenged, whatever it might be, those people are volunteers.

I am lucky to see firsthand in my community the amount of time, effort and emotion that is put into volunteering in our Ambulance Service. I know that there is always a call-out within our regional communities for more people to put their hand up to volunteer for their Ambulance Service. Likewise, the other emergency services—the CFS and the SES—are all manned by volunteers. It is only volunteers who keep those things going, it is only volunteers who keep our communities going. If you break down what some of those duties and responsibilities are in emergency management it is pretty confronting.

We have volunteers who are having to go out and fight bushfires, often protecting property whilst their own property is under threat. We see ambulance officers having to go out and tend to people they know. They might be friends, they might be family or they might be community members they know. It is pretty hard. We see SES volunteers and CFS volunteers having to attend at fatal car accidents and stand over the top of vehicles where they know the people within the vehicle.

Volunteers give so much to our community, and it is so confronting for us to consider the depth of emotion and the depth of challenge that these emergency services volunteers in particular have to bear for their community. They do it for their community. Just like all the volunteers across my community, that is their sole focus: giving back. The value that you get from volunteering is not the pat on the back, it is the value of being part of a community, adding to that community, knowing that you are doing your bit in your generation that previous generations have done and future generations will continue to do.

I look around my electorate and often smile when some of my counterparts here talk about the two football clubs in their electorate. Well, over in the electorate of Flinders I have more than 20 football clubs, so I cannot unfortunately note off the best and fairest or the life member of each one of those more than 20 football clubs, not to mention the netball clubs, the basketball clubs, the hockey clubs—these sporting clubs that are built on volunteering. Unfortunately, the 10 minutes that we are given never can cover adequately the individuals within these organisations, but it is that basis of volunteering that, as I said, is built on generations.

I can look back and see that the people who build our communities came to build a better life for themselves. Often, they came into communities and built a pretty ordinary house for them and their family to live in, and do you know what they did next? They built churches, they built schools, they built community facilities and they built sporting clubs because they knew that that was the foundation for the community that they wanted future generations to have. These community groups are diverse, and this is why I would encourage anyone to consider that there is always an opportunity for you to be volunteering—whether it is the Rotary Club or the Lions Club.

Over my way, the Lions Clubs are well renowned for their hot doughnuts, whether that is at Lock, Cleve or down at Tumby Bay. Usually at an event, there is a Lions Club raising money through these things. The progress associations, the town hall committees, the hospital auxiliaries and the regional show societies are raising money for some of the most basic medical services that we have within our communities. There are so many different aspects and so many different interest groups that you can get involved in if you actually put your hand up for volunteering.

I want to highlight also the amazing festivals and events that we have on Eyre Peninsula. In the October long weekend we have the Oysterfest at Ceduna. It is an amazing event, and I would encourage all my colleagues in this place to go along and enjoy that local event and the local produce there. That event is built on volunteers. We have the Colour Tumby Festival, which is coming up in the March long weekend. It is an event close to my heart because I have seen firsthand people with a passion for their community wanting to get stuff done for the community. In a couple of weeks' time there is the Tasting Arno event. These sorts of events are built on volunteers and built on community.

I want especially to note the hard work of volunteers at the Tunarama Festival in Port Lincoln. The Tunarama Festival was established in 1961—it is the longest-running regional festival in the state. It has had its challenges over the last couple years with COVID, and we have not had Tunarama for the last couple of years, but those volunteers did not let that get them down.

So this year the Australia Day long weekend was an incredible opportunity for the 60th Tunarama Festival to occur. It is well-renowned for the tuna toss, and that is what usually gets on TV, but it is also all the different events that come around it. I am still shaking out my shoulder from my attempt to toss the tuna; to see some of those who were a lot more able than I flinging their replica tuna was an amazing thing.

I want especially to thank the volunteer committee of the Tunarama Festival. It was led by Sharon Humenick, a passionate woman who only last year was the Port Lincoln Citizen of the Year. Her group of volunteers put in so much time, so much effort, to showcase the Lower Eyre Peninsula, to showcase the produce we have, to showcase the community we have. The events that were put on as well were, as always, entertaining: not just the tuna toss, but we had a salmon and prawn toss for the kids, a watermelon eating competition, boat building (which is one of my favourites), sand sculpture and the traditional emergency services tug-of-war, where the SAPOL guys flex their muscles against the MFS, CFS and SES. These are the events our community is built on and these events are built on volunteers.

Again, I commend volunteers from all around my community. It is only through your time, through your work, through your effort, which you put in, that we have the community that we have. Again, I encourage anyone within our community to consider volunteering in whatever way. It might only be for a hour or two a week, or it might be for significant time. It might be putting up your hand to be president of one of these groups or maybe just someone who supports in the background.

Our nation, our state, my region are only the way they are because of the efforts of our volunteers, and on International Volunteer Day it is a great day to recognise that, but I want to make sure it is at the front of mind of each and every one of us each and every single day.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (12:02): I rise also to support the motion, broad as it is, to the parliament in this first sitting week, celebrating International Volunteer Day back in December. We ought to take every opportunity that arises to celebrate those volunteers in our community because speakers before me, and just now the member for Flinders in particular, have highlighted and emphasised that the fabric of our community is undoubtedly based on the contribution of volunteers. That goes all the way back through to early days. These were conscious decisions, expressions of the value people held in bringing community together and in maintaining the fabric of our wonderful communities.

We might be forgiven, in the course of a debate on volunteers, a certain degree of parochialism—and I will become particularly parochial in a moment—but it is worth bearing in mind that we live in the most extraordinary place in the world. There are events worldwide that remind us about that almost constantly, and our hearts go out to those who are suffering in Turkiye and Syria presently, and in those many parts of the world troubled by violent strife as well as natural disasters. They serve as reminders that the fabric of our community here in South Australia is indeed one that we are fortunate to share together, and one that is underpinned by the contribution, the ordinary day-to-day contribution, of volunteers in their so many and varied ways.

It is from that perspective that I highlight those extraordinary achievements of constituents of mine in the Hills. Just in recent weeks, on Australia Day, we had the opportunity to recognise citizens of the year and active citizens. Those citizens are recognised invariably for their volunteer commitments to our community. I wish to recognise, in particular, Natasha Hortle and Jasmin Scott, the Citizen of the Year and Young Citizen of the Year respectively in the Hills, both of them of Woodside. I congratulate them for their dedicated commitment, in so many ways, to the Hills.

I want to particularly highlight a number of recipients of active citizenship awards on Australia Day, recognised at the Adelaide Hills Council ceremony that I was honoured to attend at Stirling on Australia Day morning. It was a beautiful occasion, celebrated in beautiful weather. Firstly, I mention Ross Kealley, who is well known to people in the Hills, particularly around Aldgate. Ross was recognised for his sustained volunteer commitment to The Hut. The Hut at Aldgate, much loved by our community, is a place for people to find refuge and to find help, friendship and support. Ross, in a whole variety of ways, has been a dedicated volunteer at The Hut over a long period of time.

On receiving his active citizenship award, Ross pointed out to all of us that it is a joy to be recognised and that is wonderful, but he really wanted to say that he had had the opportunity over these years to volunteer his help in terms of assisting The Hut and that had been tremendously rewarding for him. It had meant so much in terms of enriching his life, and so he very much was encouraging the volunteer service both for the contribution it makes to the community but also for what it brings back to the volunteer. So I say congratulations, Ross, and I look forward always to seeing your smiling face at The Hut.

Doreen Thomas, also of Aldgate, was recognised for her lifelong contribution to the Hills—and it is about time, I would say, that Doreen Thomas was recognised. Doreen is well known to all of us, as is her dear husband, John. Doreen was present together with their two adult sons and is, I think, a proud and modest recipient of the active citizenship award, typifying the kind of unassuming contribution to community that many make. Doreen is to be applauded.

Just to rattle off a no doubt incomplete list of those contributions, we know that they include volunteer work related to parenting, children's education and sport. She has contributed to the Adelaide Hills agricultural bureau and to Probus. As well, as we know, she is a much-loved contributor to the Stirling Sub-Branch of the RSL as well as the Women's Auxiliary. She is reliable, capable and encouraging of others and just a wonderful human being. Congratulations to Doreen.

Thirdly, I want to highlight Tracy Goodwin—and it is a shout out, Tracy. I know the joy that you bring to the Hills and so very particularly, over more than two decades, as a leader, coach and administrator in Hills netball. You know we are passionate about netball in the Hills, none more so than you, Tracy, and I congratulate you on that recognition of your passion, which translates into service and contribution to so many young people in the Hills who have the opportunity to participate in Hills netball. It takes resilience, teamwork and joy and commitment to all those day-to-day things that keep the association in good shape. Congratulations, Tracy.

Merrilyn Hannaford was recognised at the Uraidla award ceremony. Merrilyn is much loved, and her contributions to the Uraidla and Summertown communities are of long standing. She has been involved, typically, across a range of activities, including as catering coordinator for the local CFS—they are a group of 10 brigades that are engaged in that way—as well as upgrading Uraidla Primary School and involvement in both the Uraidla and Summertown netball clubs. Merrilyn is a much-loved volunteer.

I hope that we continue to highlight the contribution of individuals as examples of what is so valuable as we continue to build healthy and vibrant local communities. In that regard, the Hills, I am pleased to report, are in good hands and in good shape. I commend the motion.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (12:11): I would love to thank all the members who have spoken on this motion. I think the breadth and depth of the stories that we have heard today in communities both metropolitan and regional really does express how many incredible volunteers we have in South Australia.

In particular, the member for Hammond and the member for Chaffey spoke about our emergency services volunteers, in particular given the events over the summer with the devastating floods in the Riverland and the incredible effort of both emergency services volunteers and everyday members of the community, who have come together to assist people affected by the floods. As a daughter of a former volunteer for the CFS Bool Lagoon brigade, I have seen firsthand growing up the incredible work that our emergency services volunteers do.

To the member for Badcoe, I thank her for her words in shouting out to a particular local, Jamie Morgan, who was the Marion Sportsperson on the Year. It sounds like he is a quiet achiever and a doer. What would our communities do without people like that?

To the member for Waite, who in particular gave a shout-out to volunteers of political parties, none of us would be in this room without them. In many ways, political volunteering is an extreme sport. I do not think you have really lived unless you have done that 3am Macca's run after putting up thousands of corflutes in your marginal seat.

To the member for Bragg, thank you for giving a specific shout-out to sporting volunteers in our community. On Saturday, as an example, I took my little girl, Audrey, to a come-and-try netball session run by the Walkerville Netball Club. The number of volunteers who came out to try to encourage little ones to take up the sport was just incredible, so a specific shout-out to Jessica Nicholls and the coach, Shirley Milner.

To the member for Heysen, this is a motion regarding International Volunteer Day, and so I thank the member in particular for his comments in regard to Turkiye and Syria and all the volunteers in those communities not just helping to try to save lives but dealing with the aftermath that will come for many months and years after these tragic earthquakes.

The member for Schubert highlighted the importance of volunteering as a young person and the story of Kaelan in her community. He has three jobs but also takes the time to volunteer, which is incredible. It is so important, particularly with our ageing population, that we encourage that next generation of volunteers. To hear stories like Kaelan's is absolutely wonderful.

To the member for Flinders, I would like to set him the ultimate MP challenge of at some point in his parliamentary career naming every single volunteer of the 20 football clubs in Flinders. I have learnt something today. I did not realise you had that many footy clubs in your electorate. That is absolutely incredible.

I hope I have covered everyone there. Once again, thank you to all the speakers for speaking on such an important motion. For those listening online or who will see this later, if you are a volunteer, you are an absolute legend and once again we thank you for your service. I commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.

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