Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Volunteers change our world. That is the theme for this year’s National Volunteer Week, which runs from 12 to 18 May, when we recognise and thank Australia’s volunteers. Official statistics tell us that more than 5.4 million Australians over 18 years of age—that is, 34 per cent of the adult population—do some voluntary work in a year, contributing an estimated 713 million hours. In addition, we could probably add all the unofficial community work of mums and dads helping out at their kids’ schools, sports and other activities, the work neighbours provide by keeping an eye on and helping elderly and ill members in the community and the work of all those who serve on the committees of myriad church, community, charity and sporting organisations.

We recognise that it is the contribution of volunteers at all levels that is at the heart of sport throughout the world—from local clubs to national governing bodies, right up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sports events need officials to plan and publicise events, accept and record entries, plan competitions, recognise achievements, encourage improvements, coach, administer and record results.

Volunteers are now essential to the functioning of all sections of community life. The Universal Declaration on Volunteering, adopted by Volunteering Australia, does not overstate the importance of volunteers to our society when it says:

Volunteering is a fundamental building block of civil society.

It goes on to say:

Human values of community, caring and serving can be sustained and strengthened. Individuals can exercise their rights and responsibilities as members of communities, while learning and growing throughout their lives, realising their full human potential.

It goes on:

...Volunteering is an essential element of all societies. It turns into practical, effective action, the declaration of the United Nations that we, the people, have the power to change the world.

Volunteering of course benefits not only the recipients but also the individual volunteers. This point emerges strongly in every survey of volunteers. In the 2007 National Survey of Volunteering Issues undertaken by Volunteering Australia, 99 per cent of the volunteers surveyed were positive about the benefits of their work to the community. Volunteers gain a sense of worth, of contributing and of empowerment. One example of the mutual benefit gained is the University of the Third Age, which uses qualified member volunteers to present interesting and challenging courses.

In the National Survey of Australian Volunteers, formal volunteering is defined as an activity which takes place in not-for-profit organisations or projects and is undertaken:

• to be of benefit to the community and the volunteer;
• of the volunteer’s own free will and without coercion;
• for no financial payment; and
• in designated volunteer positions only.

Volunteering allows individuals or groups to address human, environmental and social needs and is a way in which citizens can participate in the activities of their community. It is work that is unpaid but it is not a substitute for paid work and is performed in a not-for-profit area. The principles of volunteering include that volunteers do not replace paid workers, or constitute a threat to the job security of paid workers, and that volunteering respects the rights, dignity and culture of others.

Volunteering Australia is the national peak body working to advance volunteering in our community. Its role is to represent the diverse views and needs of the volunteer sector while promoting volunteering as an activity of enduring social, cultural and economic value. The role of Volunteering Australia is to:

• provide government and organisations involving volunteers sound policy advice on matters relating to volunteering
• provide a national focus for the promotion of volunteering and its principles
• establish cooperative relationships with key national and international stakeholder organisations
• encourage the pursuit of excellence in volunteer management—

and consulting with stakeholders to ensure proper representation of the volunteering sector.

Volunteering Australia also conducts research and investigates and implements new projects. An interesting recent project has been the idea of harnessing the talents of the so-called grey nomads to benefit isolated rural communities on a volunteer basis. They use the term ‘grey nomads’ for senior people travelling around Australia, often spending considerable time exploring the inland and visiting outback towns. Benefits for towns include project developments using the skills, resources and talents of the grey nomads. When the grey nomads stay in those towns and communities, they bring economic benefits. Benefits to the grey nomads include learning about the local area, being part of the community and having the opportunity to contribute not just to rural life but to the overall sustainability of those communities.

Sponsor of National Volunteer Week, this year and for the past 10 years, is the National Australia Bank, and the week is also supported by the federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. As part of its sponsorship NAB has awarded prize money each year to community groups for their best practice in managing volunteers. This year will be the last of these awards from the NAB, which has announced that it will refocus its efforts to encourage its 22,000 employees to assist the community through the transfer of business and professional skills.

The 2008 National Survey of Volunteering Issues report will be released during National Volunteer Week, this week. This national survey helps Volunteering Australia understand what issues are emerging in the sector and what factors help and hinder effective volunteering. Volunteering Australia uses this information to formulate policy positions to put to government, and also to target research and consultation.

All too often, government processes can place obstacles in the way of volunteers seeking to make a contribution to the community. Results of the 2007 survey identified some issues of concern to both volunteers and their organisations, despite the overriding positive outcomes of satisfaction in achievements and feelings of empowerment.

One major issue for volunteers and their organisations was the requirement for background checks—that is, police checks and working with children checks. Problems identified as impacting adversely on both volunteers and organisations were the lengthy processing times, the costs of the checks, the lack of transferability and the lack of access to the checks. So there is an area we can improve.

Other issues rated as having an adverse impact on volunteering were the out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the volunteers, and health and safety issues. Seniors and retirees have sometimes faced difficulties in registering as formal volunteers because organisations have concerns on the grounds of occupational health and safety and possible liabilities relating to compensation.

These concerns have also been highlighted this year in a British report which comments on the ‘wasting of the potential of volunteers in public services’. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government aims to encourage the use of more volunteers in health and social care services, but the report comments that unnecessary child protection checks and other bureaucratic barriers are wasting this potential. Obviously these checks are important, and again this points to improvements in processes to streamline these necessary checks. Clearly, according to this British report, the checks are unnecessary in many cases, such as for someone working on a hospital radio station rather than working with individual children. The report also identified ‘insurance and other legal considerations’ as inhibiting managers in their use of volunteers.

Our nation needs to foster a more positive attitude towards the use of volunteers. We know that the benefits are there. We need to find improved ways of engaging with the energy and skills that volunteers offer our wider society. Volunteering provides an opportunity to create new people-centred services. It would be wrong, and ultimately destructive, to see volunteering as a way of cutting jobs and reducing costs. That is not the principle of volunteering. Volunteers can contribute to, and impact beneficially on, public policy. They contribute to social change and wellbeing. The whole community benefits from the work of volunteers, both in terms of their direct contributions to the projects on which they work and through the wider sense of belonging, social inclusion and mutual responsibility that grows through volunteer involvement. In this National Volunteer Week I would like to extend my thanks to volunteers and honour their contribution to Australian society.