Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

International Volunteer Day is 5 December, and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about volunteers in my wonderful community in Chisholm. We recently held the Caroline Chisholm Volunteer Awards ceremony, and the ceremony is one of my favourite events of the year. It was such a privilege to be able to recognise volunteers from organisations right across my beautiful electorate, spend time together at the fabulous Box Hill Community Arts Centre and share some terrific conversations, connections and refreshments. These awards are really important in our community.

There's absolutely no question that the work that holds communities together is so often undertaken by volunteers. Simply, things fall apart without them. I think it is absolutely the right thing to do to recognise their contributions and achievements and highlight the importance of volunteering right across the electorate, knowing that it will inspire others to also make a contribution and become a volunteer.

The Caroline Chisholm awards continue a tradition started by the incredible former member for Chisholm and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, my friend Anna Burke. It has been terrific to follow her example of service to our fabulous community. It has been such an honour and privilege, and I've learnt so much from her. Caroline Chisholm, after whom my seat was named, was one of Australia's most famous volunteers and community activists. She worked hard particularly to further the cause of migrants, women and girls throughout the 19th century. So I think that this adds an additional layer of significance to the recognition of volunteers in my community.

I was recently able to highlight the work of volunteers at the Whitehorse unit of the State Emergency Service, one of our terrific local SES teams. This is a really, really busy team working hard, and I was so pleased to learn more about everything that they contribute to our community when I recently visited with emergency services minister and Minister for Cities Jenny McAllister. The minister and I really do understand the hard work that needs to be supported, and we will work with our state and local government counterparts to emphasise the support that is needed. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Whitehorse SES for everything they do in our community.

I'm delighted that the latest round of the Volunteer Grants program has opened and that eligible local groups will be able to submit expressions of interest. Volunteer grants recognise the incredibly valuable role of volunteers in building more resilient and cohesive communities. Grants of between $1,000 and $5,000 are available to help community organisations to support the vital work of their volunteers.

This year, some changes have been made to the Volunteer Grants program to better respond to the environment volunteer organisations are now faced with and to better reflect our government's commitment to children and young people. There are now two categories of volunteer grants which reflect areas of high demand for volunteer organisations. There is category 1, for communications and IT items—things like laptops; phones; payment devices and software—and for paying for insurance premiums; and category 2, for items and services that support the development and wellbeing of children and young people under 18. These changes mean that volunteer grant funding will be more targeted to where it is needed most. The volunteer grants will fund volunteer organisations for costs associated with any activity helping and supporting children and young people under 18, to help with the costs of modernising their operations and to cover key costs, including insurance premiums and internet bills.

I am so pleased and privileged to be able to support the incredible work of the amazing volunteers and organisations in my electorate. I want to thank everyone for all they do to contribute to our beautiful, vibrant community and wish everyone a very happy International Volunteer Day on 5 December.

I remember when I first became the candidate for Chisholm and how frequently, when I was out door-knocking, the issue of higher education came up in conversation. In many ways, this was no surprise. People in my electorate really do value education and understand that it opens the doors of opportunity. With two universities, Monash and Deakin universities in the local area, there are many students, graduates, academics and their families who call my beautiful electorate home. I am so pleased to have been part of a government that champions education—particularly higher education—and I will always be a champion for higher education myself.

I spoke about this in my first speech and about my view that we needed to reform the sector so that more people had the opportunity to obtain an education and that the often anti-education, anti-university ideologies of the previous government needed to be rejected. Our government is leading an historic reform process of the university sector, and the Australian Universities Accord has provided a really important blueprint for ways forward to ensure that the sector is sustainable, accessible and excellent, providing high-quality education right across the country.

I undertook a survey in my electorate a while ago now on this issue and received hundreds and hundreds of responses. This informed a submission that I then wrote and submitted on my community's behalf about the reform they wanted to see in the sector. Reducing debt, supporting students with pathways and improving safety on campus were a few of the hot topics that emerged. These are just a few of the areas that we are taking action on.

We have changed the way debt is calculated and that means over 23,000 people in my electorate will never see their debts grow faster than their wages again. We're investing in opportunities so more young people can get to university. We are introducing paid placements, too, for eligible students, which I know is incredibly important to people in Chisholm. We have established a National Student Ombudsman to provide an important pathway for complaints to be handled and resolved and to provide an extra layer of accountability and process for students who might want to flag issues outside of their university processes. We're also working through our national plan to eliminate gendered violence in a generation. This is something that touches every portfolio in our government, and education is a really critical part of the delivery of this plan.

These issues around higher education are all really near and dear to me and to my community. If I have the privilege to return here following the next election as a member of a Labor government, then we will wipe even more debt for people and continue to implement the really important reforms that we've started to strengthen our higher education system in Australia. I will always be a fierce champion for higher education and for my community, and I am looking forward to doing more work in this area and beyond with the government and in Chisholm.