Federal Budget lacks strategic consideration of volunteers
Volunteers are central to key government priorities identified in the Budget, including the environment, aged care, disability, domestic and gender-based violence, and cost of living. While volunteering is mentioned throughout the Budget, it lacks a strategic, whole-of-government approach to resourcing and supporting volunteering in Australia. More strategic support for a thriving volunteering ecosystem is essential to progressing these priorities.
We welcome the continuation of the Volunteering and Community Connectedness funding stream and measures to address cost-of-living pressures for everyone in Australia. However, volunteers and volunteer involving organisations remain under immense pressure. Cost-of-living pressures increase operating costs and demand for services, and at the same time reduce people’s capacity to volunteer. Half of all registered charities in Australia engage no paid staff and are run entirely by volunteers. Increased resourcing for Australia’s not-for-profit sector is needed to support volunteers and address the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
The Budget includes funding for the Australian Bureau of Statistics to deliver an enhanced annual General Social Survey, which has previously collected key national data on volunteering. More comprehensive and frequent data on volunteering is vital to support the implementation of the National Strategy for Volunteering (2023-2033).
Securing funding for the enhanced annual General Social Survey underscores the critical importance of comprehensive data on volunteering. This investment is essential for driving forward the National Strategy for Volunteering, ensuring we have the insights necessary to empower and strengthen our volunteering ecosystem in the years ahead.
Volunteering Australia CEO, Mark Pearce
Volunteering Australia’s Pre-Budget Submission called for targeted, strategic investment in volunteering to enable the Australian Government to meet key priorities and progress the co-designed National Strategy for Volunteering. We recommended the following initiatives:
- Provide volunteering cost-of-living relief through an expanded Volunteer Grants program.
- Fund volunteering infrastructure and the continuation of the Volunteer Management Activity.
- Resource National Strategy for Volunteering implementation.
- Develop a National Volunteer Passport.
- Establish an Environmental and Climate Change Volunteering Capacity Building Program.
- Implement a national initiative to address loneliness through volunteering.
- Develop a National Disability Services Volunteering Framework.
The Federal Budget demonstrates the need to think strategically about how volunteering contributes to societal and economic outcomes. We continue to call upon the government to invest in the implementation of the National Strategy for Volunteering.
Volunteering Australia CEO, Mark Pearce
The role and value of volunteer workers needs to be explicitly recognised and better understood in these reform agendas, and further measures taken to promote sustainable volunteering into the future. The work that volunteers do is not a ‘nice to have’; it is essential work that supports our schools and hospitals, our aged care and disability services, and our ability to support the community in times of crisis. As the National Strategy for Volunteering shows, volunteering requires deliberate and ongoing strategic investment underpinned by adequate resourcing. We cannot afford to ignore the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on volunteering.
Volunteering Australia CEO, Mark Pearce
Next week is National Volunteer Week. This year’s theme highlights the diversity of volunteering and volunteers across Australian communities. By promoting and celebrating volunteering as ‘Something for Everyone’, we can continue to work collectively towards a shared vision where volunteering is at the heart of our communities. As we lead into National Volunteer Week, we look forward to hearing more about how the government is supporting volunteering into the future.
Pre-Budget Submission
Our Pre-Budget Submission, drafted in partnership with the state and territory Volunteering Peak Bodies, sets out the investment needed in the 2024-25 Budget for volunteering to thrive in Australia’s future. It demonstrates how targeted, strategic investment in volunteering will enable the Australian Government to meet key priorities.
Priority Recommendations:
1. Provide volunteering cost-of-living relief through an expanded Volunteer Grants program.
Investment: An increase of $5million per annum
As part of the Australian Government’s commitment to a stronger, more diverse and independent community sector and its overall cost of living response, funding for Volunteer Grants should be increased in line with inflation and to reflect the growing cost of living. The 2024 Volunteer Grants should be expedited, and a key objective of this round of grants should be to support cost of living pressures being faced, particularly by small, volunteer-run organisations.
2. Fund volunteering infrastructure and the continuation of the Volunteer Management Activity.
Investment: continuation of circa $6m plus indexation per annum
The 2024-25 Budget should extend funding for the Volunteer Management Activity with indexation into the forward estimates. We recommend that the Australian Government continues to fund and support the Volunteer Management Activity program, with a commitment to a further five-year program.
3. Resource National Strategy for Volunteering Implementation Funding is sought to enable the implementation of the National Strategy for Volunteering.
Investment: circa $18million to fund initiatives in the first Three-Year Action Plan.
This would support initiatives in the first Three-Year Action Plan and continued coordination of the strategy.
4. Develop a National Volunteer Passport.
Investment: development funding of $8m in 2024/25 plus ongoing funding of $2m per annum.
To increase efficiency and reduce administrative burden on volunteer involving organisation, the Australian Government should fund the development of a volunteer passport. This platform would aim to increase volunteer mobility and enable better planning through improved data collection.
5. Establish an Environmental and Climate Change Volunteering Capacity Building Program.
Investment: a development fund of $1m in 2024/25
The Australian Government should invest in foundational work to establish a program which builds environmental and climate change volunteering capacity.
6. Implement a national initiative to address loneliness through volunteering.
Investment: development and ongoing funding of $3m per annum.
The Australian Government should invest in a national initiative to promote and support volunteering as a form of social connection to target loneliness in Australia. This should include a public promotion campaign profiling volunteer involving organisations with a focus on social connection and a grants program that resources these organisations to expand to accommodate more volunteers and participants.
7. Develop a national disability services volunteering framework.
Investment: to be determined as part of implementation of the NDIS Review
To support the vital role of volunteering in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Australian Government should invest in the development of a national disability services volunteering framework. This must be based on robust data on volunteering in the disability services sector, underpinned by a new Disability Sector Workforce Census.
