Wednesday, 28 May 2025

National Volunteer Week

Ros SPENCE (Kalkallo – Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Carers and Volunteers) (10:31): Last week was National Volunteer Week, and it was a great opportunity to recognise and celebrate our terrific volunteers. I thank and extend my appreciation to all the volunteers in the Kalkallo electorate. Victoria has one of the highest rates of volunteering in Australia. Last year 3.3 million Victorians volunteered, collectively contributing 730 million hours to the community. Volunteers make a huge contribution to our community. They benefit personally from those efforts, and they meet some great people along the way. This year’s theme for National Volunteer Week was ‘Connecting communities’, emphasising how volunteering can bring people together to face challenges and foster inclusive and thriving communities. In the Kalkallo electorate, we saw some fantastic initiatives to honour the week. Hume City Council lit up Broadmeadows town hall in red, held information sessions to help more people volunteer and celebrated local volunteers at a recognition ceremony, which I know the member for Sunbury attended. Mitchell Shire Council also celebrated the week with grants for community groups towards events, activities, training and development, and transport. Thank you to my local councils for helping celebrate National Volunteer Week, but most importantly, thank you to all our volunteers, be they in our emergency services, community sports, neighbourhood houses, men’s sheds, residents associations, schools, health care, food relief, for community groups, charities and not-for-profits, multicultural groups, seniors groups, animal rescue and foster carers. In almost every facet of our lives, much of this work could not be done without the selfless dedication of our amazing volunteers.