Time to celebrate and acknowledge volunteering

It’s National Volunteer Week and while we all agree volunteering is good for us, sometimes I think we take volunteering for granted.

I want to highlight just one example of how volunteers contribute to making Australia such an exceptional country.

We’ve just held a national election. For me, no day on the democracy calendar is more inspiring and uplifting than election day. It really is amazing.

Of course, I enjoy maiden speeches, and we will now get to listen to a whole new set, the class of 2025. Most will offer rich personal stories about how people got to be where they are, the sacrifices they made and how they have relied on family and mentor support to finally become a representative in our Parliament.

Most will talk about their connection to their communities through volunteering and other engagements. These maiden speeches will stay on their Parliamentary record as a first indicator of what they are seeking to achieve and why.

At the other end of a political career is the valedictory speech, perhaps the most honest and revealing speech a politician ever gives. We have a while to wait for the next set of these, but they can also partly define a politician and their career. I can still picture Senator Ursula Stephens acknowledging her Irish roots as she lyrically sang her way out of the Senate. Again, I enjoy this ritual, this part of our democracy and our parliament.

But election day is something else. It’s not just about politics and politicians, but much more grounded and connected to our communities, big and small, in every corner of our nation and in embassies and polling places all around the globe. Whether phone voting from Antarctica, fronting up at the Australian embassy in London, or dropping into the local primary school, Australians are united in their participation as equals, all voting for who will form government and lead our country.

According to the Democracy Sausage website at least 2,700 polling places had sausage sizzles or cake stalls (these are the ones we know about). This means thousands of small volunteer groups, school parents and citizens associations, local sporting groups and service clubs were out in force on election day, running sausage sizzles and cake stores, all juggling a roster of volunteers.

In the seat of Fenner where they elected our Assistant Minister for Charities, Andrew Leigh as their representative, more than 85 per cent of polling places had democracy sausages, and a few even had halal options. This is the third highest level of sausage stall presence at polling place of all Australia’s electorates.

Where I voted it was the local surf life-saving club who offered bacon and egg rolls along with the equally gastronomic democracy sausage option. Unfortunately, we missed out on the ubiquitous child decorated democracy cup-cake which I know proliferated at many local primary schools.

I knew all the people handing out how-to-vote cards at my polling place, and despite the spruiking volunteers supporting different political candidates, they all huddled together passing the time between electors in vibrant conversations.

I know not every polling place was without tension, but the vast majority were friendly welcoming places connecting us all with our communities and local groups. While paid AEC staff may be supervising, what makes our polling places work, what sets the tone for the way we cast our vote, are the volunteers.

The successful election of a new government, the associated rituals of concession and acceptance speeches, the mass mobilisation of volunteers and community groups, the universal acceptance of the power of every person in the country to have a say in who governs them, election day in Australia represents democracy at its finest.

It is an understatement to say we should never take our democracy in Australia for granted. We should also not take for granted that at the heart of our democracy, especially on election day, are thousands of charities and not-for-profits mostly staffed by a massive army of volunteers making possible what few other countries experience, a genuine demonstration of true democracy and community.

I can’t imagine what election day in Australia would be without volunteers. It wouldn’t work.

And this is just one small area of our lives where volunteers set the tone, make things possible, provide the base and support that helps us build flourishing communities.

As we acknowledge volunteers in Australia, we should also note that there is still a lot of work to do to better support and enable volunteering in Australia.

We must sort out the basics like insurance and background checks in ways that enable rather than impede volunteering. We need to better define how to support volunteers, particularly in times of crisis.

Volunteers help make Australia the kind of place we want to live in.

CCA looks forward to working with Volunteering Australia and others to advance a policy agenda that recognises the true value of volunteering.

David Crosbie has been CEO of the Community Council for Australia for the past decade and has spent more than a quarter of a century leading significant not-for-profit organisations, including the Mental Health Council of Australia, the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, and Odyssey House Victoria.