Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for International Development and the Pacific. Given my electorate of Solomon has one of Australia's largest concentrations of registered returned volunteers, can the minister please outline how volunteers from Solomon are helping to improve the lives of people in developing countries?

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to take this question from the member for Solomon, who I know has a very strong interest in the Returned Australian Volunteers Network and, indeed, those Australians that participate as Australian volunteers for international development. I am pleased to advise the member that there are more than 100 members of her electorate that have participated as part of Australian Volunteers. It is opportune that she should ask this question, because this Saturday happens to be International Volunteer Day. So, taking that into account, I think it is important that we reflect on what it is that Australians actually do in helping to build capacity not only across the Pacific but indeed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, because that is where the majority of Australians give of their time, give of their effort and help to train and build capacity in different countries. I am pleased to say that the member for Solomon's volunteers are part of the 540 volunteers that joined AVID—that is, Australian Volunteers for International Development. In fact, there are some 1,400 Australians that are giving of their time and that are giving of their intellectual property and their knowledge in their participation in international volunteering. Indeed, more than 90 per cent of those 1,400 Australians work in the Indo-Pacific region.

I am pleased to say that I have had the unique privilege, as I have moved through the Pacific, of meeting with a number of these shining examples of what I call 'Aussie ambassadors'. These are people who are helping to train people throughout our region. In particular, I think of the example of Lyn. Lyn is a lady from the New South Wales Central Coast who is working in Fiji. She is working alongside the disabled in Fiji, helping to provide them more capacity in the future to secure well-paid jobs and helping them to build their abilities and focus on the work that they do. In that respect, an example of someone like Lyn—someone who gives of their time voluntarily to make a difference—really does set the benchmark for all of us about what we can do as Australians. Likewise, I think of Sharon. Sharon is a midwife who is volunteering her time at the National Referral Hospital in the Solomon Islands. She works as a midwife in helping to train midwives in the Solomon Islands—another example of an Aussie who is giving of their time in literally saving lives through her work in the Solomon Islands.

So I say to the member for Solomon and, indeed, I say to all of the colleagues on my side of the House and the opposition members: take the time this Saturday to celebrate the great, outstanding work that Australian volunteers do. They really are shining lights when it comes to our capacity building in the region, and they deserve to be applauded.