Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Right now, in the middle of a relentless cost-of-living crisis, community spirit has never been more important. Behind the economic statistics are real Australians skipping meals, turning off heaters and quietly lining up for food relief for the first time in their lives. In those moments, there is usually a volunteer nearby saying you don't have to do this alone. Across Australia, 9.5 million people volunteered in 2025 through formal or informal volunteering or both. That is almost 43 per cent of Australians over the age of 15. In my electorate of Lindsay, I'm proud to call more than 15,000 people my friends in deeds, because they really are the engines helping those struggling financially, emotionally and socially to keep going.

They are people like the volunteer firies of the Llandilo Rural Fire Brigade, who I had the great honour of joining this year to celebrate their 75th anniversary. That's 75 years of ordinary locals hearing the pager sound and walking out the door whilst the rest of the community shelters inside. That spirit still burns brightly in Llandilo today in people like the late Kevin Crameri, who dedicated an extraordinary 63 years of service to the brigade. I was incredibly proud to help replace the brigade's old, tattered flag and with a new flag that flew over Parliament House on National Flag Day 2025, a very small gesture for a brigade built on generations of sacrifice, courage and service, with a spirit so strong it was recognised across the oceans during the 2020-21 Black Summer bushfires. As flames tore through parts of Australia and volunteer firies worked around the clock, the spirit of Llandilo reached all the way across the world when the Welsh town of Llandeilo, in Carmarthenshire, held fundraisers to support our local brigade, a small town in Wales standing beside a small brigade in Western Sydney.

This year I was also deeply proud to stand with the Penrith nashos as they celebrated 75 years since that first national service intake in 1951 and held their final organised commemorative service. It was profoundly moving to read the prayer for our service men and women alongside men who have carried the values of duty, sacrifice and mateship through an entire lifetime of service.

I also want to acknowledge the more than 80 volunteers at Nepean Food Services. They deliver thousands of meals and hours and hours of support each year, but they deliver more than food. They deliver connection and they deliver that one person that comes to the door if somebody's lonely. They do so much for our community.

As Llandilo RFS marks 75 years and as the Penrith nashos close the chapter on their final commemorative service, we are not just marking dates; we are watching one generation of service hand the torch to another. Thank goodness we still have people like this in our communities—particularly mine—willing to step forward and support people when they're most in need.

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