Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Hard work often going unrecognised. No pay at all but the warm afterglow of knowing you have helped somebody in need'. If this was a job ad, no Australian would ever apply. Yet millions of Australians every year voluntarily sign up to jobs like this one. They are our volunteers, who give up their precious time to help others and make our community a better place. There is a secret to volunteering too. It is not just about helping others. You get something out of it for yourself. I have a passion for social capital, that idea that the things that bind us together have a value, that the social fabric is strengthened when more of us work together in community organisations. Attending a local Greening Australia nursery at Kubura Place in Aranda in my electorate, I saw Australia's volunteer spirit in action. Chatting to a group of volunteers who had been coming along for the past 10 years, I learned of the friendships they had formed over that time. Volunteers at the nursery told me that they were proud to be helping native flora around our beautiful city and thrilled to be learning about native plants, all the while making great friends. In fact, later this year the nursery will plant their millionth native tree in the Canberra region. The spirit on display at this nursery is the same spirit across the city and the country.

Whether it is at the Pegasus Riding School for disabled students, where people give up their time to clean out stables and do odd jobs, parents staffing school canteens, or the many church organisations throughout Canberra that help vulnerable people in our community, such as serving breakfast or providing that important emotional counselling—across Canberra and across the nation—ordinary Aussies can be counted on to pitch in. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more Canberrans volunteer than any other place in Australia. It is one of the things that makes me so proud to represent this city.

But on the best data we can get, it looks like volunteering has fallen since the post-war period. Whether it is sporting, cultural or community organisations, they all face the same challenges—how to encourage greater participation. However, if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it is that our spirit to help has not diminished, just gone a little dormant. Events in Queensland at the start of the year showed that when it counts, when Aussies need help, we will be there—friend or stranger—ready to lend a hand. The challenge for us in this place is to work with community organisations to find a way to spark a new spirit of volunteering across Australia. In the 10th anniversary year of the United Nations International Year of Volunteers and as we celebrate 2011 Volunteers Week, I am humbled by the efforts that Canberrans and Australians make to help others in our community.