Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We've got many valuable assets on the Sunshine Coast: world-class beaches, our glorious hinterland, our cutting-edge healthcare facilities and our innovative businesses. But our most important asset is our people and the thousands of committed volunteers in Fisher who give up their time to make our community a better place for everyone.

One of these local assets is Kevin Stroud, who won the Fisher Senior of the Year award at my community awards in March. After arriving on the coast in 1976, Kevin has constantly been giving up his own time to help others. He's been the President of Met Cal Nippers, he's volunteered with Caloundra junior rugby league and he has been a member of the Sunshine Coast referees for 30 years. Since 2011, he's also found time to commit himself to TS Onslow Australian Navy Cadets, where he's been the president and a petty officer instructor, giving up his Wednesday night activities for training and his weekends for these young cadets.

Margaret Smythe, along with her husband David, is a cornerstone of the Caloundra community. Between them, the couple volunteer for 110 hours every week to manage the CCSA Hall. Margaret needs little prompting to speak passionately about the community events and meetings which collectively bring 900 visitors to the hall every week. Margaret and her team of volunteers prepare the hall for dancing, stage performances, community meetings, charity groups and much more. When she isn't moving chairs and tables, she's working on grant applications to improve this vital and much-loved facility with upgrades like the new curtains recently funded by the Turnbull government.

Ivon Northage is another of our valuable local volunteers. Ivon lives in the shadow of Mount Beerwah in the beautiful Glass House Mountains. Those iconic mountains have been an inspiration to him and, over 15 years of volunteering at the Glass House Mountains information centre, he has in turn been an inspiration to thousands of visitors to our region. Ivon works tirelessly to promote understanding and appreciation of our beautiful mountains locally and to draw more tourists to our region. He's constantly called upon to give presentations in local schools, government organisations and community groups and to train other volunteers. Last year, with the help of a $10,000 grant from the Turnbull government and together with Celebrate Glasshouse Country, he wrote and published a book, The National Heritage Listed Glasshouse Mountains. When I visited him this year, Ivon took me on a personal tour of the region he knows so well. After just a few hours, I had no doubt of the huge debt of gratitude our community owes him for the knowledge and the passion that he has instilled in both locals and tourists alike.

The government currently has three separate grants available to volunteers just like Kevin, Margaret and Ivon and the groups they represent. Just a moment ago, the member for Fenner talked about Labor, but that's all it was: talk. We walk the talk on this side of the House. Our Volunteer Grants program offers funding packages of between $1,000 and $5,000 for volunteer costs like fuel, training, fundraising and small-scale equipment. The Stronger Communities Program allocates $150,000 to the electorate of Fisher and every other electorate in this country for small grants between $2,500 to $20,000 to support the purchase of new equipment or new and upgraded facilities. Finally, the government has also launched a community sport infrastructure grant program offering funds of up to $500,000 to undertake projects which will build participation in physical activity. All of these grants are currently open, and interested groups in my electorate should contact my office as soon as possible to find out how to get involved.

These grant rounds are only the latest manifestation of the exceptional commitment demonstrated time and again by this Turnbull government to supporting community groups in Fisher. In the past two years, we've provided around $750,000 in smaller grants to volunteer-led community organisations in Fisher. Some have been substantial, like the $231,000 for upgrades to the Palmwoods Memorial Hall, but the Turnbull government has also recognised that sometimes it is the small-scale grants that can be the helping hand volunteers need to make a difference to people's lives. On this side of the House, we walk the talk when it comes to volunteers. Volunteers are the backbone of our community, and this government will back them to the hilt.

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