Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to incorporate a speech by Senator Guy Barnett.

Leave granted.

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

I proudly stand here tonight to pledge my support for Australia’s volunteers. Volunteers in Australia today are undervalued and under recognised. As a country we can do a lot more to help. In terms of help I believe that we should be specifically considering the merits of tax deductions, tax rebates or the reimbursement of certain out of pocket expenses such as petrol, phone costs, postage and uniforms would be in order.

I do so with pride because I have recently prepared and submitted a 29-page submission for the Howard Government on ways of helping our volunteers. As a community I do not think we fully appreciate just how valuable our volunteers are to a vibrant and buoyant Australian society and economy.

The incidence of volunteering in Australia has doubled over the past decade from 3.2 million Australians aged over 18 years in 1995 to 6.3 million last year. There are as many as 700,000 not-for-profit organisations and only about 35,000 employ staff, with the great majority to varying degrees using volunteer staff.

The value of volunteering has been estimated conservatively to be worth $30 billion per year, or $82 million a day in today’s dollar terms, and approximately 3% of GDP. That is a huge chunk of normal Government expenses, donated free of charge —representing almost 14% of total Federal Budget outlays in 2006-07.

Some estimates and in particular from Professor Ironmonger, have put the figure at $42 billion and in today’s dollars at approximately $50 billion or 23% of total Federal Budget outlays. Either way, whether it’s $30 billion or $50 billion volunteering is a huge contribution towards the delivery of public, community, and other services in Australia —free of charge.

Put it another way. If we were to suddenly lose all our volunteers the Federal State and local Budget would be in crisis and our community as we know it would collapse. It would require a massive hike in taxes and massive cuts in expenditure to maintain a semblance of service delivery.

Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 1995 volunteering stood at 24%. This grew to 32.4% in 2000 and 41% of the adult population in 2005. Volunteering is most prevalent in the 35 to 44 age group, but numbers among young people re growing fast, with volunteers aged between 18 and 24 contributing on average 132 hours per year.

My submission with 13 proposals was prepared with generous help from Volunteering Australia and Volunteering Tasmania, and I personally thank Volunteering Australia CEO Sha Cordingly, and Volunteering Tasmania CEO Maxine Griffiths.

In 1995 Australians donated 510 million hours to community organisations. By 2000 this had grown to 704 million and in 2005 it stood at 836 million hours.

As a result of my submission and meetings which Volunteering Australia and also Major General Hori Howard (Retired) Chair of the Australian Emergency Management Volunteer Forum and the State Emergency Services Council have recently had with key decision makers in the Government, Professor Myles McGregor OAM of the Faculty of Business at Queensland University of Technology and tax expert has been approached to prepare more taxation and other financial work and modelling on how we can help the nation’s volunteers without breaching the principle of volunteering by paying them.

Other taxation legal accounting and not for profit experts are also expected to be invited to contribute to this expert taskforce and report back to me and the Government within 3 months. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Kym Richardson MP who has played an integral role in promoting the proposals and has attended meetings with key decision makers and others to help our volunteers. I look forward to continuing this effort with Kym and indeed other coalition MPs.

Key proposals from my submission include:

• Increased funding for equipment grants for volunteering or Government has provided more than $29 million to 14,000 community organisations.
• Changes to the taxation system to provide equitable relief to defray the cost to the individual of volunteering, such as tax deductions or a tax rebate. I note in particular that tax deductions are provided in the USA.
• A Contribution to out of pocket expenses such as training and uniforms, petrol, telephone and postage. Volunteers can spend sometimes in excess of $100 per week in petrol costs, let alone transport, travel, postage and phone costs in order to volunteer.
• More incentives for corporate volunteering to allow and encourage more employee volunteering programs during work time.
• Support for the upgrading and maintenance of a volunteer register.
• A permanent inclusion of a volunteer question in the Census of the Australian Population and regular ABS updates on volunteering.
• A specific Volunteer Medal in the Order of Australia awards.
• Funding for research into issues that affect volunteers and volunteering.
• Remove red tape adversely affecting or impeding volunteering.

Mr President I want to place on record my assessment of the concept of volunteering, and where it fits with our society. The efforts of volunteers in Australia provide the moral spinal cord of our economic and social fabric. It is the volunteer character of this activity that creates, nurtures and replenishes the relationship of trust in our country, and provides us with one of our greatest human and moral assets as a nation especially in times of need and crisis.

I don’t mind drawing an analogy between our volunteers and the Anzac spirit that persisted at Gallipoli and similar places in the world. Less dramatic, perhaps, but no less worthy.

The Macquarie Dictionary defines a volunteer as “one who enters into any service of his own free will, or who offers himself for any service or undertaking”. The International Year of Volunteers in 2001 was successful because it built on this foundation.

Volunteerism is an important indicator of our social, moral and spiritual health and well being as a nation.

While not exclusively an Australian practice, volunteering is an integral part of our Australian culture. Culturally and spiritually it ranges from “Thank God for the Salvos” to Meals on Wheels, from the local ambulance, fire service to the church fair or country ‘appeal’, to support for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and Sydney Olympics to the 14 day rescue effort at the Beaconsfield Mine in Tasmania, to the provision of care and counselling for those affected by the Bali bombings, to hands-on administration and management support for disability, community, service, charity or other local groups.

The list of community groups and volunteer effort goes on and on and on. Volunteerism was recognised in the Biblical story about the Good Samaritan, often taught in Sunday school or primary school and the Bible message – “Love thy Neighbour as thyself” - helping a mate (male or female) when they’re down, irrespective of whether the volunteer knows them personally or not.

The ANZAC spirit of mateship, sacrifice and bravery impregnate the service ethic of volunteers. Our servicemen and women epitomise the gift of sacrifice that is so dominant amongst Australian volunteers. Churches, charities, and a multitude of service and community groups all contribute. More often than not this contribution is unseen. The contribution is made by the quiet but persistent achiever. These people give of themselves, expecting little or nothing in return but the pleasure of knowing they have contributed to a better community – a better Australia.

Most fire ambulance and other emergency services throughout Australia, particularly in rural and regional centres, rely on volunteers. In Tasmania alone we have some 5,000 fire service volunteers, primarily in rural, regional and outlying areas. The training undertaken by these volunteers is often regular and nearly always selfless requiring not only the cost of time, but financial sacrifices in terms of travel and transport costs, ie petrol, phone and postage. The cost of on-the-job volunteerism is incalculable in terms of the psychological effects.

Most volunteers of course would say the latter would be a positive effect. In one instance I had a complaint from a volunteer in Hobart who could not afford to pay the $100 per week for petrol to provide his volunteer service.

The cost of volunteering has become prohibitive particularly from the high cost of petrol. In a recent letter by a volunteer ambulance officer on Tasmania’s East Coast it says:

“Around Tasmania, volunteers provide a significant proportion of the State’s emergency services. All Swansea’s emergency services (Ambulance, Coastguard, Fire Service, and State Emergency Service) are staffed entirely by volunteers.

‘These volunteers donate many hours each month to the community, through time spent in training, in maintaining vehicles and equipment and in responding to emergencies.

In addition to giving their time, volunteers also support Tasmania’s state emergency services from their own pockets, in paying for expenses such as fuel and telephone use incurred in the course of their duties.

‘Many volunteers are on low incomes, some on pensions. Many live out of town and bear a significant cost in getting to town for training and meeting their commitments as volunteers. The cost of fuel is significant for these people. With the continuing rise in the cost of fuel, it will become a proportionately larger cost for volunteers.

‘I would like to see all costs incurred by volunteers in the course of their volunteering (such as fuel and phone expenses), be tax deductible for those who are able to claim tax deductions, and recompensed for those receiving pensions or benefit payments.’

Already the number of volunteers in all emergency services in Swansea has fallen in recent years. I believe this situation is widespread, and it results in a heavy load falling on a few people, and in some situations threatens the viability of the emergency service in a community. With escalating fuel costs it is likely we will have another reason for the loss of our volunteers.”

The corporate sector has given financially to this and other needs and have backed the objectives of many other church, charity or community groups both directly and through the contribution of staff time. The Australian Government’s response to the Asian tsunami was a proud moment in my Senate career.

My submission is not about undermining or ruining the concept of volunteering – by suggesting that we pay people to volunteer - because that would be absolutely counter-productive, a contradiction in terms, and I believe a majority of Australians would reject such a move as unnecessary and unwelcome.

It was, however, about Australians acknowledging the contribution made and saying thankyou, not only for the human value placed on volunteering, but also for the staggering financial value they are worth to their country. It was about the Australian community collectively doing their bit for volunteering in a systematic and reasonable way.

Let me also say, that any form of recognition and compensation by the community, through governments, should not be restricted to the Federal Government. This is a whole of community responsibility and obligation, and clearly the other two tiers of government have a role to play and a fair share of the cost to bear.

As a rule, volunteers who incur expenses in the course of their duties are not able to claim income tax deductions in their personal income tax returns. The Australian Taxation Office has a determination which regards volunteer expenses as not incurred in earning assessable income, and therefore not subject to deductions.

Financial donations to a non-profit organisation assist in the payments of expenses like salaries and equipment. The donations are tax deductible. Why should not the valuable contribution of a volunteer also be tax-deductible, or reimbursed if they are not a PAYE taxpayer?

The Government needs to incorporate our army of volunteers into our social system in terms of the tax laws, and by doing so, honouring and encouraging them, rather than appearing to routinely accept their generosity and doggedly expecting their contribution. This sadly has the effect of sapping the volunteering spirit.

Mr President, I believe volunteering is a largely untapped and huge opportunity with which to engage the community especially regional Australia and will be seeking support and feedback from the community.

If volunteering returns billions of dollars each year in value to Australia’s economy, then the financial capital invested by government, in recognition of volunteering, is a small price to pay, and yet one which I believe all volunteers and the community at large would applaud. It is clearly a worthwhile investment in the social capital of our nation.