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Thank you very much, Mr Chairman, to my Ministerial colleagues, Peter Reith and John Herron. To Mr Joesph Elu and Mr Peter Steigrad, my other parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
I too acknowledge and pay respects to the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land on which this gathering takes place. I’m very happy indeed to take a few moments out from other contentious and well reported matters to associate myself very strongly with the launch of the voluntary service to Indigenous communities Foundation.
Because it’s very much an expression of two elements of the Government’s approach to social policy in this country. One of those that Peter Shergold has been kind enough to refer to is of course our passion and I think I could call it that for the notion of a social coalition. The idea that in the early years of the 21st Century, you don’t solve the social problems of this country by the various constellations of influence and capacity in the community working independently of each other, but rather by bringing them together.
There used to be a time when we thought the solution to every problem was for the Government to take it over and spray money around. We then went through a stage of thinking that somehow or other if the government retreated entirely, you could solve the problem. I think we’ve now reached a happy amalgam of recognising that there is a limited but strategic role for the government. There’s a very important role for voluntary organisations. There is a very important role for the business community and also there’s a very important role for public spirited individuals.
And one of the great Australian traditions of which all of us are very proud is the fact that we are a volunteer society and there are literally tens of thousands of Australians who are perfectly happy to give up their time for no reward to try and help right what they regard as a social inequity or a social wrong.
And this Foundation recognises that and this Foundation over time will draw on that reservoir of decency and good will within the Australian community. But this Foundation also gives expression to the views of the government about practical reconciliation.
It was about three months ago that I had the opportunity in the Western Suburbs of Sydney to launch on behalf of David Kemp the literacy and numeracy programme for Indigenous Australians recognising that an inability to have the requisite level, or the denial of the requisite level of skills in areas such as numeracy and literacy, that kind of disadvantage was just as debilitating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians as it was for other people within the Australian community.
Three weeks ago I had the opportunity along with some of my colleagues to visit Moree where I saw a remarkable experiment, a very successful one in community co-operation. Where the cotton industry and other local citizens had decided to do something to reverse the very troubled race relations of that community and they’d had great success and the good will evident at the Croc Eisteddfod and the good will evident in the contacts at other community gatherings was a very good demonstration to me of practical reconciliation at work.
And today’s announcement is all of a piece with both of those strands of government policy. The social coalition and practical reconciliation. We are involving people who have a public spirited desire to help the Indigenous people of the Australian community. We are recruiting the leadership and commitment of the business community. The Government itself is contributing $1.5 million dollars of money, seed money, to help the establishment of the Foundation. And we’ll be drawing on a very rich tradition of Australian volunteerism.
I think many members of parliament have had the privilege in the last year or so of presenting certificates of appreciation to members of the Australian community who’ve served with volunteers abroad, have done things on behalf of various non government organisations in places like Papua New Guinea and in the Pacific Islands. And what this is, this Foundation is about in a very systematic and professional way is recruiting people who want to volunteer for periods of weeks or months to assist Indigenous communities.
And one of the greatest problems faced by Indigenous communities in Australia is the challenge that many of them are dysfunctional, as indeed are other communities within the Australian nation. And what we seek to do with this Foundation is to provide a network and mechanism whereby people who want to provide their time and their effort and their commitment, they can be matched to people and groups within the Indigenous communities of Australia that want that help and want that assistance.
And the Foundation will link volunteers who have professional and technical skills with communities that have requested help. It will provide mentoring and support for Indigenous businesses. The concept of mentoring is I believe something that is going to bulk much larger in the provision of community and welfare help in the years ahead.
The idea that somebody with experience of running a business, being willing to make their time available to help somebody else get their business going is something that can be used with great practical benefit and great practical effect within the Indigenous communities.
Typically communities require a range of practical business management, professional and trade skills such as accountancy, construction, engineering and health work and the Foundation will match the community’s needs with the most suitable volunteer.
The aim is to have the volunteers live in the community for two to three months, giving individuals in the community an opportunity to learn new skills from the volunteers. And this is all about establishing working partnerships between Indigenous community volunteers and the business sector.
The Foundation will cover travel and subsistence costs for the volunteers, while the communities will provide accommodation. The Government as I indicated will contribute $1.5 million dollars over three years to support the work of the Foundation and fund raising will be an early priority for it to establish an additional funding base.
The Foundation will begin work with a six month pilot phase involving about ten to twelve projects around Australia. The Board of the Foundation has representatives from the indigenous community and from the business, voluntary and service sectors. Mr Joseph Elu and Mr Peter Steigrad have agreed to act as Co-Chairman of the Board. I want to thank both of them for their contribution of time and the other people who are going to serve on the Board.
This volunteering program is an adjunct to the indigenous employment program launched about a year ago by Peter Reith on behalf of the Government. It too sits very much in the centre of our approach to providing not only practical reconciliation but also to enlisting the involvement and the interest of the business community in coalition with community groups and the Government.
The support of the business community for the indigenous employment program has already been impressive. I frequently say that I don’t ask that business give more rather that more businesses give. And the notion of a social coalition is catching on. It is spreading. It is being seen as a contemporary, practical, realistic approach to solving problems of social deprivation and social disadvantage within the Australian community.
This is the third opportunity I’ve had in less than a week. Last Friday in Melbourne in launching a partnership between the Smith Family and Westpac. Last Monday night here in Parliament House in giving the Prime Minister’s awards for business and community partnerships. And today to launch, commend and endorse very strongly the Voluntary Service to Indigenous Communities Foundation. It is an illustration of reconciliation at work. It is an illustration of the social coalition at work.
I thank Peter Reith and compliment him warmly on his initiative in bringing it to the Government. I launch it and I wish it well. I know it will enjoy great community support and great goodwill.
[Ends]