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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-29 Daily Xml
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International Volunteer Day

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (12:06): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes that 5 December 2023 is International Volunteer Day;

(b) expresses thanks to the nearly one million South Australians who volunteer each year;

(c) acknowledges the work of our emergency service volunteers and other volunteers who assist our community during times of natural disasters such as floods, bushfires and storm events;

(d) acknowledges the support provided by Volunteering SA/NT as the peak body and the Volunteer Resource Centres; and

(e) notes the work of the Malinauskas Labor government to support and promote volunteering in South Australia.

It is often said that South Australia, in fact our country, could not operate as it does without the work of volunteers, and that is indeed very true. The millions of hours provided by volunteers across our state and our nation each year would cost the nation billions of dollars if to be provided through paid employment. Yet Australians do not volunteer for recognition but because they believe it is the right thing to do.

The National Strategy for Volunteering informs us that 56 per cent of Australians undertook volunteering in 2022, and next week we celebrate these Australians on International Volunteer Day. On 5 December, we will celebrate and thank our volunteers while also raising awareness of the important role volunteers play in responding to the many challenges facing our world.

International Volunteer Day, mandated by the United Nations General Assembly, is held each year. It is viewed as a unique chance for volunteers and organisations to celebrate their efforts, share their values and promote their work among their communities, non-government organisations, United Nations agencies, government authorities and the private sector.

This year's theme for the day is 'If everyone did' and centres on the power of everyone and the power of collective action in a time where much of the progress made on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015, including the 17 sustainable development goals, are stalled or reversed with only one—responsible consumption and production—now 40 per cent complete.

There is a sense of urgency to respond to global development challenges ranging from climate action to natural disasters, reducing inequality, hunger, health and rising poverty to endangered natural resources. All these challenges require collective action, as do so many other challenges in our own community such as combating hunger, providing emergency assistance, saving lives and keeping our community safe.

I wish to express thanks to every volunteer in our community. Whether they give hundreds of hours every year or several hours a month, every contribution is valuable, and if everyone did something then it would further enhance our community. If everyone could find some time to volunteer, our world would be a better place. Imagine more than eight billion of us volunteering—the possibilities are endless.

I am proud to be one of those volunteers putting my hand up at Oaklands reserve parkrun. There are many volunteer roles that you can do at parkrun, so there is a place for everyone. You can be a timekeeper, or you can be a park walker. In fact, last Saturday I tried a new volunteering role as a guide for the vision impaired, for one of our park runners, Rolf.

We also have in my community the weekly St Jude's community meal, another event at which I volunteer where possible, not only serving a meal to those in need in our community but also, once they have had time to eat, sitting down and chatting with them and making some connection. I have also had the opportunity to volunteer at the Marion RSL, pulling beers on ANZAC Day so our veterans can spend time together. I know many of my colleagues also volunteer, and I look forward to hearing everyone's contributions. As I mentioned earlier, nearly one million South Australians volunteer each year, and I ask every member in this place to encourage our community members to exceed one million volunteers, as the need never diminishes.

Earlier this week, as the weather raged we saw that our State Emergency Service volunteers were on the frontline protecting lives and property. This is just the most recent example we have seen, from the extensive work that occurred through the summer floods to their work during the Naracoorte storm last week and fighting bushfires across our state, unfortunately on a regular basis. Combined, the services of the SES and the CFS have nearly 15,500 volunteers and attended more than 20,000 incidents during the 2022-23 year.

We especially thank these women and men as they put themselves in harm's way to keep us safe. In addition, I would like to thank the emergency volunteers from the Salvation Army and the staff from Housing SA who provide assistance on the ground in these circumstances. On the frontline in my electorate are our surf lifesaving volunteers who we know are so highly trained and thankfully not too often called upon. But, unfortunately, as we saw at Port Noarlunga recently, their critical work helps keep our community safe and save lives.

Mr Acting Speaker, if you decide today that you want to volunteer, how would you find out which organisations could use your skills? That is where Volunteering SA&NT and the volunteer resource centres come in. Through these centres you can inquire about what is available, what you can offer an organisation, and if there is any training you might need. These organisations provide referral services, quality training, research and information, and run the Aged Care Volunteer Visitor Scheme in several areas across Adelaide.

Volunteering is for everybody regardless of age, gender identity, background, sexuality or ability. Through a partnership between Orana, Southern Volunteering and Northern Volunteering, the Volunteerability program was developed to support volunteers living with a disability and volunteer-involved organisations to work together in a successful, inclusive way.

Of course, like every community, there are particular volunteers who stand out. In Brighton, we have Virginia Summers, a prolific volunteer in my local community. Her volunteering commitment to the community is seemingly endless. She is a church warden at St Jude's and works in support of St Jude's Community Meal; and, with her many contacts in the community, she sources food for those meals. She volunteers at the Seacliff Esplanade parkrun and is a Joey leader with Scouts Darlington and so much more. In fact, I was proud to be volunteering at the St Jude's Community Meal just a couple of weeks ago when Virginia was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation by Minister Cook, and flowers by Sophie from St Jude's. Thank you, Virginia, for everything you do.

In addition to Virginia there are hundreds of volunteers in my community. Our volunteers at Brighton and Somerton Park Surf Life Saving keep our beaches safe, provide first aid and youth development opportunities. The Brighton and Marion RSL sub-branches facilitate fellowship for our veterans and ensure that we remember the fallen.

My local service clubs, such as Brighton and Marion Lions, organisations such as MarionLIFE, St Jude's Anglican Church and St Elizabeth of Hungary Anglican Church provide community services, care for those in need and provide connections in our local community. Every weekend, we have sport playing across Gibson, and all those teams require volunteers, be it coaches preparing training plans, volunteers running the lines or parents cooking the barbecue, washing kits or driving kids to and from training. Without these people our sports would not run so successfully.

Our young people, too, participate in volunteering in many organisations, including Scouts and Guides, Youth Collective and HoldUp youth committees, and many other places providing community service, learning skills, advocating for change and running events. And if you care particularly for the environment, in our local community we have the Friends of Minda Dunes and Sturt River Landcare—environmental volunteer groups, which I have also spent some time volunteering with.

In 2023-24, the Department of Human Services is providing $718,000 in funding to the volunteering sector for a range of grants, including for sector support and advocacy, community capacity programs and volunteer support and recognition. This includes $431,000 to Volunteering SA&NT for sector advocacy and impact as a peak body.

I am proud to be part of a Malinauskas Labor government that supports and promotes volunteering in South Australia. My friend Minister Cook knows the value of volunteering and that every volunteer is special in our state.

Every year we have the South Australian Volunteer Awards, which recognise the invaluable work that volunteers, volunteer managers, community organisations and businesses contribute to the South Australian community. We also have volunteer certificates and special volunteers' days for our volunteers each day on the second Monday in June. I thank every volunteer and commend this motion to the house.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:17): I rise to support the motion in an amended form and note:

That this house—

(a) notes that 5 December 2023 is International Volunteer Day;

(b) expresses thanks to the nearly one million South Australians who volunteer each year;

(c) acknowledges the work of our emergency service volunteers and other volunteers who assist our community during times of natural disasters, such as floods, bushfires and storm events;

(d) acknowledges the support provided by Volunteering SA/NT as the peak body and the Volunteer Resource Centre; and—

deleting paragraph (e) and substituting—

(e) notes the work of all governments in supporting and promoting volunteering in South Australia.

I do not think there is anything greater than volunteering for your state and for your country. We have seen volunteers sign up to serve in our armed forces, and that has the potential of paying the ultimate sacrifice.

We also see volunteers sign up for so many other roles, and not necessarily signing up; it can be as simple as helping a next-door neighbour, it could be putting a bin out, doing the gardening, assisting with volunteer driving—which is quite essential in country areas—and getting people to medical appointments or out to do their shopping. Many people have a renewed, vibrant lifestyle doing this, meeting new people, being able to get people to appointments and look after them in that way.

We also have the sporting clubs. I got a letter from one of my sporting clubs—it was one of my local football clubs—noting that they need more volunteers. COVID obviously caused people to stay at home, and I think it had a real impact on the levels of volunteerism. You cannot just expect to turn up to junior netball, junior football or any other sporting event, drop the kids off, go home and think it all just happens. It does not all just happen: it happens because of the work of volunteers, as has already been stated. It might be coaches, or it might be doing the time keeping or goal umpiring.

There is nothing like goal umpiring when you have your neighbour's young son questioning your decision quite vigorously to your face while you are waving the flag; he thought it was a goal and you signalled it as a point. You just get on with the game. It is such a necessity. It is said that a volunteer is worth close to $50 an hour, but they really are priceless. No government, whether on a state basis or a federal basis, would be able to put up the money to pay the billions of dollars that would be needed over time for all the volunteer efforts that are made.

I mentioned COVID and sporting events and the issues there. Some people who were the heads of leagues and that sort of thing really stepped up and did massive COVID plans just for holding sporting events in communities, doing the square metreage and all the numbers that needed to be done with the health guidelines. Even the motorsport park in Tailem Bend, which I think covers over 1,700 acres, had to put these plans in place, but it obviously had plenty of room if you calculate all the space for the punters coming out to see motorsport.

Motorsport is another area where a whole lot of volunteers come on board to work, whether it is on the track out there at Tailem Bend or now with the new dragway, which was so good to see going the other day with 35,000 people turning up over the weekend. Sadly, I am old enough to have been there 44 years ago when Waltzing Matilda the jet truck went down the track from the other direction. It is so good to see the drags back there, and that is ably helped by many volunteers to make sure the teams can get out there.

Certainly, our service clubs are tireless in their efforts right across the state. I will name some, though I will not get them all. It could be Lions, or it could be Rotary—there are a whole range of service clubs that do things like catering in the community just to make sure that people can get an egg and bacon roll or have the barbecue running. I have seen some pretty exquisite barbecues set up by clubs to serve the community.

Our emergency services do such a great job. We have the SES, with over 1,750 members at 69 stations across the state. It was great to see the new station at Strathalbyn, and we commissioned that station to be built while we were in government. The new rescue vessel, the Mulyawonk, is stationed at Murray Bridge. It was good to go to Loxton a few weeks ago with the member for Chaffey. We saw Cosi Costello and the crew doing a recruitment drive. There are fantastic facilities in Loxton. From all things, I understand quite a few people signed up when they saw the equipment and the facilities that they are dealing with there to work with people up and down the river and elsewhere.

I certainly thank the SES for all they do and obviously the Country Fire Service, the CFS, which I am a member of, as is the member for Waite and as possibly are others in this house. They do great work, not just in the fire season, which we are obviously into now, but right throughout the year: the road crash rescue and working alongside SES. In some cases the CFS are the lead agency, as we found out the other night when we had the incidents at Coomandook. I managed to get to one, but I was up here for the second one, with two trucks burning down within the space of four days on the Dukes Highway. But just to get there and see those volunteers work all night and then have to go to work the next day on their farms and their other businesses to make sure that everything is safe is fantastic.

I want to recognise the many, many volunteers, including those unrecognised due to being in an organisation like the CFS or the SES and particularly the SES and CFS volunteers who helped with the recent floods right up and down the river, from up in Chaffey around Renmark all the way down to Wellington and who did magnificent work. It was so good to meet people who had come from Adelaide and other places to help fill up sandbags or place sandbags and just get on with the job of supporting communities that a lot of them probably did not have any direct connection to. It is so good to see that level of volunteering.

In relation to firefighting I reflect on the Yumali-Netherton fire, where I took out my private unit that day. I want to recognise those farmers with their private units because they are the ones who are usually first on the scene, especially when a harvester lights up—and they do. They usually have enough facilities there, enough tankers, enough fire units—to get there and blow it out in a hurry so it does not start a big event. In the Yumali-Netherton fire, which was now over three years ago, I was so proud to see the farm firefighting units working alongside the CFS to get that under control. The best thing is late in the day when you see those strike teams come from out of area, as they did that day from down the South-East so that we could head home about 9.30 and get up at daylight and get going again. They made sure that we did not lose those structures that we had saved the previous day.

To all our volunteers, I just say thank you: we cannot get enough of you. It does not matter what you are volunteering for, it does not matter how big your role is; it is special, it is unique and it is necessary to make sure that this great state of ours functions. And it does not matter who is in government. We need the volunteers because if we did not have them we would not see the goodwill that is achieved by so many South Australians in this state.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (12:28): I cannot say enough about volunteers, and my up-front appreciation of all the work that they do. More than 900,000 South Australians volunteer each year, many of them not only offering their help to others but also gaining so much more than that. Our community is so grateful to everyone who takes the time, donates their efforts and gives so much. Without them we would not be able to achieve a whole lot of things that we see in our communities and across our state.

I am so fortunate that volunteers throughout my community give so freely with care and love for what they do. Our Friends of Parks do an incredible job of caring for our parks. The work they do with weeding, planting, educating cannot be underestimated. The Friends of Belair, Shepherds Hill Reserve, Sturt Gorge, Brown Hill Creek, Waite Conservation Reserve, Blackwood Forest, Hurds Hill and the Woodlake Reserve Action Group—we have so many people who just give up their time to go out into nature and to look after it, and I thank them.

We also have an incredible group who operate along our rail corridor—the Friends of Belair Station, the Blackwood Action Group, the friends of Lynton, the friends of Mitcham—and all of their supporters keep our stations looking good. Having gone home on the train last night, I know the effort that they put in is definitely appreciated by our community.

Speaking of local community groups who do a lot, Blackwood Action Group and the members of the Blackwood Action Group look after so many smaller gardens. They have an incredible history group. They are in the throes of organising the Christmas Tree Festival. They love our community, they love looking after it and we absolutely appreciate everything that they do.

Pauline Dodd, the history coordinator and also the coordinator of the Christmas Tree Festival, is absolutely decking the halls of our new community centre with trees, which will be decorated by businesses and community groups from across the community. Everybody can walk through, have a look and even have the opportunity to buy one to take home. It is a huge job. She has had a lot of help. In fact, just the other day we had an event at the Blackwood train station where we made twig trees and reeds. There were so many people helping and I cannot wait for that to start. I make a quick call-out to Geoff and Liz Bartlett, who have given so much to our community and are both recovering from fairly serious health issues. We wish you all the best in your speedy recovery.

Sports clubs, schools, Scouts and many more could not operate without the help of volunteers. The hours and hours that they put in organising rosters, maintenance, coaching, cooking barbecues, and fundraising is extensive. Our sports clubs especially would not be able to continue without the help of volunteers.

Special to me are the Blackwood Lions and the Bike Shed. These two groups come and help me at the Mitchem train station to support our local mountain biking community. They give up their Sundays, they cook a barbecue, the Bike Shed guys check the kids' bikes and it is an overall great community opportunity to wrap some care around the mountain bike riders and remind them that they are part of a community.

On Friday last week, I attended the AGM and Christmas party of our Blackwood Meals on Wheels, a program that provides not only meals to our vulnerable but also a warm smile and a heartfelt conversation. which is quite possibly the only conversation that person has in a day. We thank them for all they do, including Heather to whom I presented her 30-year pin—what a commitment to our community. Further, our chair, Cheryl Grey, retired this week, making way for Kate. Cheryl has done such an amazing job in keeping all the volunteers organised and I thank her.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention our emergency services volunteers, our CFS and our SES volunteers who give so much, including the very real risk of their lives, to protect our community. We have the Blackwood, Belair, Eden Hills, Coromandel Valley, Cherry Gardens, Upper Sturt and Ironbank CFS brigades who respond in our area regularly. These volunteers get up in the middle of the night, they rush out to put out a fire, they rush out to cut up a tree or help people when they are at their most vulnerable in a car accident. They never flinch and they are there for us.

As well, we thank our Sturt SES and Metro South SES, who are busy just this week after the massive rains and storms that we had. They all work incredibly hard and never question what they have to do. They get out there and they keep us all safe. Thank you, our community are forever in your debt. This motion acknowledges all our volunteers, as well as the support that Volunteering SA&NT, as the peak body, and volunteer resource centres provide.

Our government appreciates, acknowledges and supports volunteers. The Department of Human Services is providing $718,000 in funding to the volunteer sector through a range of grants, including sector support and advocacy, community capacity programs and volunteer support and recognition. I know many of the volunteer organisations in my community have taken advantage of some of that money to do some of the really great things that they do.

International Volunteer Day is 5 December, a day like any other, when we acknowledge and thank our volunteers. We should thank them every day because the work they do is priceless. If it were up to me, I would encourage everybody to take up volunteering. Personally, I know that not only does our community benefit but I benefit. I benefit from my volunteering in that I feel good about myself, I feel like I have been able to make a difference and I know many volunteers feel exactly the same way. It is a buzz that you cannot get from working, it is a buzz that you cannot get from anything else and I encourage anyone to take it up.

The theme this year is 'If everyone did', centering on the power of everyone is important. As I just said, if everybody took an hour, two hours or in some cases a day or two days to volunteer, we would see not only everything blossom but also the kindness in our community grow. We lost volunteers during COVID and we need everyone to consider giving it a go. We need to boost our numbers back up. We also see in our volunteer organisations quite often that they are slightly more experienced members of our community. Young people, I encourage you to think about the benefit that you will get from being a volunteer and consider just giving a little bit of your time.

I commend the member on her motion. It is very important to recognise our volunteers as much as we can. We could not do anything without them.

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (12:35): I rise to speak to the amended motion that has been put forward in recognising International Volunteer Day, which we celebrate, of course, on 5 December. There are nearly one million volunteers here in South Australia each and every year and I think that deserves an extraordinary vote of thanks.

The fact is that we have one million South Australians who are willing to give just a small portion, and sometimes a large portion, of their time and effort to give back to our local community, but, as has already been reflected on in the house, we do need more of them. I am constantly seeing calls from my local CFS or footy clubs or service groups asking for people to put their hand up and just give a little bit of their time. I think COVID did cause a little bit of struggle in the volunteer community, but we thank each and every one of the people who give so much back to our local area.

Upon doing a quick google search, I found that the volunteering effort in South Australia is worth around $5 billion, which I just think is so extraordinary, but of course the very nature of volunteering is people giving back to their local community without seeking financial gain and without seeking financial reward. They do it because they know that their little bit of effort is going to make an extraordinarily large contribution to our local communities in some way, shape or form.

I think it is fair to say that, particularly in regional communities, our volunteers are the lifeblood. I have heard the member for Hammond make comment about sporting clubs and communities particularly and it is so true to say that on a Saturday, or whenever your sport of choice is played, that at every single point you rock up to your local sporting club, whether it is getting your ticket at the gate or you are a local barracker from the Lions Club, whether it is getting your bucket of chips from the canteen, watching the senior 1s or the modifieds, or whichever sporting group it may be, they are out there with significant coordination from volunteers and we would not be able to do it without them so we thank them.

We have the Lions Club, and I am a proud member of the Angaston Lions Club. They are a fantastic group and I give them a big shout-out, but there are many right across our region. We have our emergency services, whether that is our CFS or SES, and they have done an extraordinary job, particularly over the last 24 to 48 hours when we have had to batten down the hatches and deal with some pretty remarkable weather. In my local community, we battled a fire just two days ago at Mount Pleasant and that required some urgent action from the local CFS.

We have our Rotary clubs, our Probus clubs, our garden societies and all the people who work at the Barossa Bushgardens. We have our sporting clubs, as I have already mentioned. We have people who drive for hours on end in our community cars helping the sickest people in our community get to their medical appointments. Without them, who would be fighting our bushfires? Who would be pulling the beers at the RSL? Who would be coaching our under 12s or doing our sausage sizzle or even delivering meals to our most vulnerable?

If it were not for our volunteers, we would be in a real pickle and so on International Volunteer Day we say a big thank you because our community simply would not be the same without you. We know you do not do it for the praise; you do it because you genuinely believe and understand that all the time and effort you put in is for the greater good of the entire community, so we thank you. We encourage you to keep going and we look forward to thanking you and seeing you out and about at all the various community activities that we have particularly coming up over Christmas.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (12:39): I also take the opportunity to speak about some of the many wonderful volunteer organisations in Morphett, and also the many volunteers who really add that sense of camaraderie and giving to our community. Of course, being a beachside electorate, the beach is very important to people, not only for our community but also for many tourists and, of course, Adelaideans who come down to the beach. So keeping the beach safe is very important.

I have spoken before about the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club and what a wonderful service they do in keeping the beach safe. The new president, Pat Larven, and also the deputy president, Anthony Merchant, who many people will recognise on the beach, do a wonderful job of organising the patrols and making sure the club runs well. I was on patrol myself on the Saturday just gone, on the weekend, and it was wonderful to see the different people you meet.

On this occasion, we had over 33 international students come to visit the surf club. They are part of the Royal Life Saving South Australia's Beach Smarts for Life Program, which is a program that is also supported by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations and is aimed at giving water safety, beach awareness and CPR training to these international students.

As we addressed the students to welcome them to the beach, one of the questions asked was: how comfortable do they feel about swimming in a beach environment? Only one of them put their hand up, because maybe they have been familiar with poolside swimming, as was pointed out to them, the beach is something totally different. While it might look benign on the surface, especially if it is a still day, of course it is not like a pool where, every time you go into it, it is the same depth and same flat surface.

Beaches are really a very interactive environment, heavily dependent on weather and what goes on underneath the water as well in terms of drift—where you might be walking in waist-deep water for quite a while, and if you suddenly go into a gutter you could end up being in over your head. Those sorts of safety messages were pointed out to these students.

It was really wonderful to be able to join another one of the surf club's great volunteers, Amanda De Ieso, who was awarded by Surf Lifesaving South Australia as the Assessor of the Year, as she took them through their paces and also introduced them to other volunteer lifesavers who were on patrol that day.

Of course, being able to patrol, being volunteers, we all have to keep our skills up, and that entails doing a proficiency test each year to make sure that our skills are there. Just yesterday, I did my dry proficiency, which involves CPR skills, radio skills and signalling skills. That was again done by volunteers. Because parliament ran late, I only got there at about quarter past seven, and they were giving up their time after their work as well, so I would like to recognise the chief instructor, Iain Mitchell, and also Rob Warne, who is the lifesaving manager. They really know their surf skills, which helps make our lifesavers proficient.

We have about 150 volunteer surf lifesavers at Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club, spanning 11 volunteer beach patrols. While I am not able to recognise all of the many volunteers, if I could just acknowledge the 11 patrol captains who do such a great job: Dave O'Shaughnessy, Dan Everett, Ursula Simpson, Shane Limmer, Angus Stevens, Tash Tunney, Damien Fox, Lincoln Jefferey, Shane Harris, Georgia Sumner and Benn Findlay.

Of course, there are so many terrific service organisations as well. The Rotary clubs do a wonderful service for our community. There are three really vibrant Rotary clubs in Morphett: there is the Rotary Club of Glenelg, the Rotary Club of Somerton Park and also the Rotary Club of Holdfast Bay. In July each year, these clubs do their changeover dinners and it is a great chance to say thank you to the previous presidents and welcome the new presidents and hear about some of the terrific work that those clubs have done over the years.

Glenelg Rotary celebrated its 70th anniversary, and club president Alison Rogers took us through some of the highlights, including raising $1,000 for Foodbank for Christmas hampers, which will give so much love and be received so well as we come into the Christmas season. They also helped raise funds to donate to the Ukraine Crisis, which saw over $100,000 sent to help in that war-torn country. The club also sponsored a student in Tanzania. This comes out of a school originally started by an Australian lady; she started that school in Tanzania with three students, and it now it has over 1,800 students, which is a wonderful measure in Tanzania and supported heavily by the Glenelg Rotary Club.

They also support the local schools in Morphett and give out good citizen awards to St Leonards Primary School and the Plympton International School as well. Another significant activity they do is to try to concentrate on engaging youth, because with volunteer organisations—and we have heard other members say they are encouraging new members to join—a great source of potential new members is our youth.

Glenelg Rotary Club really tries to engage with them through their One and All youth sailing challenge. In May this year, the Rotary International Convention was held in Melbourne, so to recognise that the Glenelg Rotary Club, along with the 32 clubs from the local district, supported 34 students to take part in this program, which was initiated by club member David Binks. They went on the tall ship, the One and All, and sailed from Adelaide to Melbourne to be part of the convention. It is such a great program; it has been nominated for the Premier's service club awards along the way. That is some of the great work they have been able to do.

I pay tribute to Alison Rogers as president—she had a tough year with family health battles. As she said in her speech, she was the driver of the bus but unfortunately had to get off, but she was ably supported by so many other volunteers in the Rotary Club. Chief amongst them was the secretary, Wayne Sachs. For his efforts he was recognised with the Paul Harris Award, a very prestigious award amongst Rotary as well. The night also recognised 50 years' service for one of the club stalwarts, Peter Heysen, so that is 50 years of volunteering and service in and around the Glenelg community, so thank you Peter for all your work.

I will talk briefly about the Rotary Club of Holdfast Bay. They do terrific work, especially in their signature program called Locals Doing it Tough, where they collect perishable food and goods from the Bayside Shopping Centre in Glenelg and in Brighton. It was wonderful to join them in June this year, and they raised over $30,000 in food and personal items and donated it to some wonderful volunteer programs run out of our local faith groups, our churches—St Vincent de Paul, St Paul's Lutheran Church in Glenelg, St Peter's Anglican Church in Glenelg and Mary's Kitchen, which runs out of St Andrew's by the Sea as well. They are some of the great works by the Rotary clubs.

I finish off by acknowledging the many sporting clubs and all the volunteers who work so hard in allowing our kids, our children, to have such fun at the PHOS Camden Football Club. The president, Nick Smith, is handing over the presidency to Sarah Fitzpatrick. At the PHOS Camden Netball Club president Bruce Turner has done a terrific job in seeing the move of the club from the Golflands Reserve over to Camden Oval, which brings them together with the PHOS Camden Football Club.

That was supported by $300,000 of funding from the former Liberal government, which I was pleased to play a part in, and that allowed for four new netball courts to be built, light towers and new clubrooms. The PHOS Camden Netball Club is a fantastic club in our local community, supported so well by Bruce. It has been 10 years in the making, and I congratulate him on and thank him for his service, as I thank all the volunteers and wonderful organisations for the work they do making all our communities so much better.

Time expired.

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (12:49): I, too, rise to support the motion acknowledging the wonderful work that our volunteers do in South Australia. There are so many volunteer groups in my electorate of Torrens that I would like to acknowledge.

One thing I would like to start with is that on Saturday 2 December, this coming Saturday, the Lions Club of Gilles Plains is holding skin cancer checks. They will have a big bus out the front of my electorate office, and people from the community are invited to come and have their skin checked by the people who are going to be there providing the service. They are professionals who will be doing the checks. It can really be a life-saving decision to participate in that, so thanks to the Gilles Plains Lions Club for looking after that. Anyone wanting to participate, if you are listening, you can contact my EO and book a time.

I would also like to thank the Northfield Meals on Wheels—it is called Northfield Meals on Wheels but it is based in Oakden—and the wonderful people who have been working there for decades providing meals to members of our community, some of whom are unable to do it themselves and others who find it just a little easier to have their meals delivered. I have participated in that myself, delivering meals to the people in the local community. Thank you to the people who volunteer their time to work at Northfield Meals on Wheels. Many of them are retired and they tell me that they are busier now that they are retired, but they find it really wonderful to be able to do the things that they are doing to volunteer in our community.

As a patron of the Enfield Horticultural Society, I know that the volunteers there have a wonderful time. They know so much. Every now and then, I hand over a plant and it comes back looked after. I used to do that with my grandmother; she would look after the plants. We have wonderful volunteers at the Enfield Horticultural Society and also at the Greenacres Community Garden. They are fantastic. That was part of our Fund My Neighbourhood program and we now have fantastic flower and vegetable gardens in the Greenacres Community Garden. A number of people go out and look after that, and there is a lot of produce that comes from that garden as well.

The volunteers in our schools, the parents who come in and help out in our schools, make such a fantastic contribution. A lot of the things that go on in our schools would not be able to happen as well as they do without the support of the parents, and particularly the governing councils, who support sports days and gala days. I was at one only last Friday at the Hillcrest Primary School and they did a fantastic job there. Thank you to the parents volunteering their time on governing councils.

We also have all our sporting clubs and the people who volunteer by coaching, umpiring, running the boundary lines and fundraising. They do a fantastic job in our sporting clubs and without them, again, a lot of our community sports clubs would not be able to operate the way they do. I would like to mention the MetroStars Soccer Club and also the Gaza Sports and Community Club where we have football, cricket and darts. We have men, women and, importantly, families that participate in these clubs, and it is the volunteers who really do assist in making it happen.

Also in my electorate we have the North East Community Assistance Project (NECAP). People throughout the north-eastern suburbs—including in the area of the member for Florey, who is in the chair—benefit through the work that is done by the volunteers who come from right across the north-east to the North East Community Assistance Project, providing food and other services. I know that leading up to Christmas, the volunteers will be preparing many packages with food and also toys for members of the community who perhaps would not be able to celebrate in a way that they will be able to because they do not have access to some of those things. So I thank all of the volunteers at NECAP.

We have the North East Community House as well. A number of people volunteer at North East Community House. As our community houses, we have someone who runs them, and the people who do that put in additional hours as well. They are not volunteers, but the extra hours they put in really make it possible. Volunteers deliver the programs there and also around the corner at Wandana Community Centre.

Thank you very much to all those people in our community. I have not mentioned them all. I know there are other people who want to speak on this. So thank you; we know we could not do a lot of what we do without you.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:55): I, too, rise to support the amended motion and to give recognition that 5 December is International Volunteer Day. It is a big shout-out to all volunteers from all walks of life, whether in metro Adelaide, regional South Australia or anywhere on the globe. Volunteers are the fabric of any community. Whether in a metro town or a regional community, I think it would be fair to say that they are equally valued for the time, care and activity that they create around their dedication to the job.

Obviously, people who volunteer are passionate. They are dedicated to contributing to make the community they live in a better place. It gives me great honour as a representative of Chaffey that I have many volunteer organisations that continue to make all our regions a better place to live, work and play sport and a safer place to live.

I cannot understate the importance of our emergency services and their volunteers. Obviously, there are a number of stations right around my electorate. Volunteers are called on many thousands of times a year to be first responders and make sure that they play their role in helping save lives and helping people navigate their way through some level of uncertainty.

Of course, our sporting organisations are also very important. They are the fabric of communities, particularly in the regions of South Australia. In Chaffey, there is no more important fabric of the community than sporting organisations. Volunteers give their time as coaches, admin, canteen, gatekeepers and bus drivers. Even motorsport clubs, of which there are many and varied up in Chaffey, do an outstanding job, and so I say thank you to them all.

Time is against me, but I want to have a big shout-out to all our volunteers. Some organisations have an ageing volunteer base. This is a big call-out to our young, up-and-coming, aspiring volunteers who want to play a role in making their community a better place by contributing to a sporting club or an organisation. Please, if you are considering volunteering, put your hand up, help out and make sure that your community is a better place for your service. I commend the amended motion to the house.

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (12:58): I want to thank all members who have made a contribution to this important motion today: the members for Hammond, Waite, Schubert, Morphett, Torrens and Chaffey. It has actually been fabulous to hear about all the volunteer groups in your community and how highly valued they are, so I thank you and close the debate.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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