Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to talk about the very important Clean Up Australia Day campaign that will be operating throughout Australia—and, of course, my electorate—on 6 March. This community event is a fantastic opportunity for all people to get outside and do their bit for the environment. Whilst being the perfect occasion on which to contribute to keeping our local areas looking beautiful, it is also a great time to get outdoors and interact with our communities.

Over its 21-year history, volunteers have transformed the nation on Clean Up Australia Day. In total, they have devoted more than 24 million hours to helping the environment by removing over 237,500 tonnes of rubbish. With almost 7,000 sites registered for this Sunday, I am sure Clean Up Australia Day will continue to be a great day of environmental action.

In my electorate of Greenway, there are scores of Clean Up Australia Day sites at which people can join in and help the clean-up effort. This Sunday, I have the pleasure of rolling up my sleeves with two very important community groups in my electorate. In the morning I will be joining the Glenwood Community Association in cleaning up a site in Glenwood. I am extremely grateful for the valuable contribution this association makes to the Greenway community, and I am looking forward to helping them keep Glenwood beautiful. Through its hard work and that of its president, Bob McKay, this association does a great job in advocating for its residents and the many local volunteers who are helping to make my home suburb a better place to live and raise a family. I also wish to acknowledge Blacktown City Council, which has also been acknowledged by the president for its role in ensuring that Clean Up Australia Day will be a great success in Glenwood this year.

In the afternoon I will be joining the Australian Tamil Association in cleaning up Best Road Reserve in Seven Hills. This is another great opportunity to catch up with some of my friends from the Tamil community and lend a hand in my home town. This is the second year the Australian Tamil Association has taken part on the day. It is another great example of their community spirit and untiring hard work. I wish to particularly thank the president of the Australian Tamil Association, Thiru Arumugam, who is very focused on his association taking an active role in such community events.

The success of Clean Up Australia Day has relied on a unique and simple idea: that individual Australians can make a difference and can contribute to improving the Australian environment by working together as a community, and I have no doubt that the community in Greenway will come together to do the same this year. It is a great environmental initiative and one that has reaped enormous benefits for Australians. It is a display of environmental action but also, very importantly, a display of the power of volunteering.

This country has a proud history of volunteering and the day is a fantastic advertisement of that. As this year marks the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Volunteer, Clean Up Australia Day is a perfect time to mark that occasion. Earlier this year, a report released by the Minister for Social Inclusion found that volunteering was increasingly trending towards young people, and I would love to see that trend reflected during Clean Up Australia Day this year.