Emergency management volunteering

April, 2026

There are thousands of volunteers across Australia who act in a voluntary capacity during an emergency or disaster event. These volunteers range from formal volunteers, who make up the majority of personnel registered with our State or Territory emergency or fire services, to informal volunteers that mobilise spontaneously in the community to support response and recovery efforts.

Volunteering Australia is engaging in ongoing work to understand the systems impacting on emergency management volunteers, and advocate for the consideration of policies that can help improve volunteer impact on disaster readiness, recovery and resilience.

Status of emergency management volunteering

There are many Australians who provide crucial emergency management support through volunteering. The most recent statistics from Productivity Commission’s report on Government Services 2026 showed that in 2024/25, 190,042 volunteering personnel supported the delivery services in emergency management across Australia. The majority of these volunteers (26,068) belonged to state emergency services. However, since 2015/16 the number volunteering personnel nationally has decreased by 16%. The increasing frequency and severity of disasters have imposed growing constraints on the capacity and capability of existing formal volunteers to meet this demand. This presents an important opportunity to strengthen emergency management volunteering.

Emergency management volunteers may need to assist in a crisis across more than one state or territory. However, current credentialing and screening systems are not portable between jurisdictions, meaning that organisations within emergency management who operate in more than one state and territory must manage contrasting credentialing and screening requirements for their volunteers. This has impacted on the ability to get volunteers to where they are needed quickly.

Policy position

Our Pre-Budget Submission 2026/27 reinforced our continued support for a single national volunteer passport or similar mechanism that allows the portability of emergency management volunteer personal details, skills and clearances between states and territories. The passport would help to improve the mobility of volunteers across jurisdictions in an emergency crisis, by reducing duplicative training and screening processes.

Our engagement

Volunteering Australia have consulted on the national volunteer passport with The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The NEMA is now working on a national emergency volunteering strategy in which the national volunteer passport may feature. While work on the passport component has stalled, and we reinforce our continued support for a single national volunteer passport or similar mechanism which has the potential to be expanded to other sectors.

Volunteering Australia is also a member of the National Coordination Group (NCG) which provides advice to the Minister for Social Services on Emergency Relief, Food Relief and Financial Counselling in response to cost-of-living pressures and natural disasters.

Advocacy & campaigns

Following the 2019/20 summer bushfires, Volunteering Australia provided statement advocating on behalf of volunteers in bushfire and recovery for stronger mechanisms to coordinate volunteers effectively in future bushfire response and recovery.

Emergency management volunteer statistics

Volunteering Australia’s Key Volunteering Statistics report details data from 2022 regarding the portion of volunteers engaged in emergency management.

Submissions

We have published four submissions on this topic since the beginning of 2023. You can access these submissions, as well as all of our other submissions and position statements on our website.