Community
26 November, 2024
Eager volunteers urge others to step up in wake of state’s review
The new state government has called for a review on the decline of volunteering in Queensland.
Aubrey Liyanage could lay claim to being among Mount Isa’s most enthusiastic volunteers.
The sprightly 70-year-old lends countless hours each week to a wide range of activities – all for free and all in support of the greater good.
His list of tasks can be exhausting – from operating a one-man graffiti removal operation to delivering meals on wheels, assisting with maintenance of the Saint Andrews Uniting Church building, helping set up various multicultural events to even handing out copies of North West Weekly across the city.
Aubrey said he gets much personal satisfaction from lending a hand.
“You reach a certain age in life, and you just want to give back,” he said.
“I know so many people in the city and I am always looking for ways to improve things. You can ask people for help, but a lot of people find it difficult to turn up.
“I think COVID saw a lot of groups lose volunteers and they have never really recovered the numbers back again.”
In a familiar story for a mining town with long shift hours and a transient population, after four years in Mount Isa, Aubrey and his wife are departing the North West next month to permanently return to Brisbane.
As a result, the organisations that Aubrey volunteers for will lose another member.
Often overlooked by state and federal governments alike, Mount Isa has always relied on volunteers to band together to improve livability in the city.
The pages of North West Weekly have been filled with reports from a wide cross section of not-for-profit groups struggling to deliver popular services due to a shortage of community volunteers.
With strong evidence that volunteering is on the decline across Queensland, a new state government parliamentary inquiry aims to shed light on the factors that impact community organisations’ ability to attract willing people and deliver their services.
The inquiry, which will be established before the end of the year, will focus on studying the restrictions on volunteering caused by legislation and regulation, current government support and barriers to volunteering for non-volunteers.
State Minister for Volunteers Ann Leahy said the Committee would be tasked with delivering a report to the government by September 2025.
“Public contributions to this inquiry are vital and I encourage those groups and individuals with an interest to get involved when the inquiry opens,” she said.
“The experiences of volunteers on the frontline need to be heard so the barriers they face can be addressed and we can reverse the decline in volunteering numbers.”
According to one recent survey by advocacy group Volunteering Queensland, about a quarter of respondents who did not volunteer said they had never been asked or were unsure how to volunteer.
Mount Isa Meals on Wheels secretary Bob Bentley said any inquiry that tried to get people active in volunteering would be a positive for the community.
Comparing the costs to the benefits, Queensland’s volunteering is estimated to return a benefit of $4.70 for every $1 of cost.
“We have about 30 people at the moment and we probably need about another 10 people or else it just means we have to ask our volunteers to spend more time here helping out,” Mr Bentley said.
He said without a steady stream of reliable volunteers, Meals on Wheels struggled to ensure its 95 clients were provided with healthy meals each week.
