Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like all honourable members, I was recently asked by the Minister for Families and Social Services, Paul Fletcher MP, to give my input on the worthiness of organisations in my electorate who have applied for volunteer grants. I appreciated the opportunity to give feedback and I have written to the minister. Anyone who lives in the NT knows that all of the organisations that have applied for funding make incredibly important contributions to our community and are deserving of federal assistance. Particularly in Darwin, as the capital city of the Northern Territory, many organisations have applied for a few thousand dollars to help them with their volunteer programs. They provide services not only in my electorate of Solomon—Darwin and Palmerston—but also throughout the Northern Territory. We are not talking about large amounts of funds, but the funds made available by the minister to these community organisations will make a huge difference.

We had a great response to the call for applications for the volunteer grants. Some of the organisations that provide services throughout the Northern Territory are Anglicare NT, AMRRIC—Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities—Asthma Foundation Northern Territory, Australian Breastfeeding Association Northern Territory, the Australian Japanese Association of the Northern Territory, Carers NT, Chinese Community of Northern Australia, Duke of Edinburgh NT Division, Girl Guides NT Inc, Multilingual Broadcasting Council of the Northern Territory Inc, Northern Territory Hong Kong Club, Sikh Association Northern Territory, Sports Medicine Australia NT, Sri Lanka-Australian Friendship Association NT, St John Ambulance Australia NT, St Vincent de Paul Society NT, STEPS Education and Training, SIDS Association of the Northern Territory, the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory, the Variety Club of the Northern Territory, Triathlon NT, United Nations Youth NT and Vietnamese Community in Australia—NT Chapter Inc. Many other volunteer organisations are doing great work in my electorate, but I wanted to let people know that I've written to the minister to support all of these organisations.