Thank you very much Mal, Deputy Chairman of the Partnership, my other Ministerial and Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. I regard a gathering like this, I regard indeed the growing success of the Community Business Partnership as a rebuke to cynicism and I say that very deliberately because there's a view, a perceived view rather, in cynical parts of our nation, that as we have enjoyed long years of economic success and prosperity, as we now survey a situation where almost the 'Holy Grail' of public policy in this country and that is to have near to full employment has just about been reached. As we do all of that, hand in hand with that national prosperity and success, there has been a growth in individual selfishness and indifference, and that's why I regard tonight and I regard the great success of the partnership as being an emphatic rebuke to that cynicism, an emphatic rebuke to the view that a society cannot be simultaneously successful and caring, and that in essence is what the Community Business Partnerships have set out to propagate, and they have been mightily successful in doing so.
We have come a long way since 1999 and I want to thank all of those who've served on the Partnership, most of them are here tonight, and to all of those in the business community who have been so generous, not only with their dollars, but more importantly even than their dollars, they have been generous with their leadership and their personal commitment. And I believe that one of the reasons that this Partnership has been such a great success is that of the many characteristics we Australians have, one of them is our great adaptability. And the manner in which the attitude of people in a short space of time has changed generally to philanthropy, and more specifically to partnerships between organisations in the not-for-profit sector, the welfare sector, the community sector, whatever generic you care to use, the way in which attitudes have altered, and in a few short years it has become almost part of the competition, to see how deep the involvement of the different companies around Australia can be in these partnerships.
And in the process I think the eyes of many in the community sector have been opened, because if some of them are frank, they might have thought five or ten years ago that it really wasn't going to work and that many businessmen and women would only be interested in the partnerships, for what they, in their rather cynical views, and their cynicism in community organisations as much as in other parts of society to what they might get out of it.
But I think as time has gone by, all of that has altered and people have begun to see the value to the country, as Mal said, of these partnerships, and we've begun to see a huge change in attitudes. And in a sense the greatest demonstration of that was the remarkable response to the tsunami at the beginning of 2005 and even more importantly the fact that as a nation we didn't suffer a form of charitable fatigue after that huge response. There were many people at the time who said, having given so much money to the tsunami that all of the local community organisations that people regularly supported, they were going to suffer.
Indeed the advice I have indicates that that certainly did not prove to be the case, and in fact the habit of giving tended to be reinforced by that remarkable response to that particular event. I bore you with just two or three statistics, that we now as a nation give about $11 billion a year in money, goods, and services, to non-profit organisations. Giving by business has more than doubled since 2000-2001, and about 525,000 businesses gave $3.3 billion in money, goods and services in the years 2003-2004. And remarkably in giving by individuals, 41 per cent of all adult Australians volunteered between January 2004 and 2005, and that represented an estimated 836 million hours or an average of 132 hours per year per volunteer. Now that's an extraordinary testament to the civic mindedness and the generosity of the Australian community.
So tonight I join Mal and I want to thank him for not only the work that he is doing as Deputy Chairman of the Partnership, but also for the remarkable energy that he's brought to his diverse responsibilities in family and community services and also the great leadership that he's giving in the very difficult area of indigenous affairs.
And on that score, can I say that this year, I'm sorry, from next year, I'm very pleased to announce that we will have an award which recognises the significant corporate sector contribution to indigenous communities or services. And that award, to be given, for the first time next year will be entitled the Special Award for Impact on an Indigenous Community. And I think all of us understand the particularly complex challenge that is represented by us as a nation trying to find the most effective and enduring way of sharing to the full the success and the bounty of this country with the first Australians.
There is a lot of debate about this issue. Nobody can claim ownership of the best solution. But what I can say to our fellow Australians who are indigenous, that there is an overwhelming desire on the part of your fellow Australians to ensure that you share to the full of the bounty and the success and all that this country has to offer. And I hope in a small way the inclusion of this Award and our Partnership Awards next year will bring an even greater focus.
So finally, welcome to all of you. I thank everybody in the Partnership, I thank all of those in the Department of Family and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs that have worked, not only to put this night together, but have worked so hard to keep the Partnership, to support it. And to all of those finalists, and ultimately to the winners, thank you for your enthusiasm, thank you for your participation, and you're making a great contribution to our country and you're participating in something that we can take great pride in, and that is, that we are repudiating and rebuking cynicism in our community and we are demonstrating that it is possible for the nation to be simultaneously successful, prosperous and also caring about its fellow citizens.
Thank you.
[ends]