IYV+10 launched in Sydney

The Governor General launched IYV+10 at a reception at Admiralty House Sydney on 14 February. About 100 guests attended including a small group of volunteers from Queensland and Victoria who joined local NSW volunteers at the event.

The launch was also attended by Minister Tanya Plibersek, and The Hon Bronwyn Bishop representing the Leader of the Opposition.

The Governor General spoke and VA President, Paul Lynch, responded on behalf of Volunteering Australia and the volunteers present.

Peter Cocks JP, National Communications Manager of Volunteering Australia, acknowledges the support of Virgin Blue and Bayview Boulevard Hotel who provided flights and accommodation for Victorian and Queensland volunteers. Their support enabled VA to bring that group who had experience in the response to the floods, to Sydney.

Address by Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, on the occasion of reception for Volunteering Australia's Launch of 10th Anniversary of International Year of the Volunteer (IYV+10)

Admiralty House, Sydney | 14 February 2011

Ladies and gentlemen, I am really delighted you could join me here at Admiralty House this evening. This 10th anniversary of the International Year of Volunteering is indeed a worthy celebration of the universal recognition given by the United Nations a decade ago to volunteers throughout the world.

Even more so, this anniversary reminds us of the human dimension and power of the global volunteering effort, and its contribution and value to the social, economic, cultural and humanitarian wellbeing of the world's most vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens.

“Think global, act local” has, for a long time, resonated with Australians, and has been an important factor in the drive and strength of our own volunteering force. It was a mantra first inspired by the early environmentalists to get people thinking about the health of the planet as they went about their daily lives.

Now, with the sense of proximity and speed that the internet brings to our exchanges, there is barely a distinction: the local and the global coalesce, individuals have the capacity to reach across the street and the world.

This is the backdrop to the mission of Volunteering Australia: in sustaining, encouraging and drawing attention to our country's traditional and now evolving volunteering movement that operates anywhere from the community garden to YouTube.

Associate Professor Melanie Oppenheimer of the University of Western Sydney has written about the experience and ethos of volunteering in Australia – many of you will be familiar with her work. In 2007, she participated in a terrific series broadcast by ABC Radio National called Vita Activa – or Active Life – which explored the breadth of Australian volunteering. And in the same year, she spoke to our National Archives in Canberra.

She said this: Although neglected historically, volunteering has been, and continues to be, a very important facet of our lives. Today, over 34% of Australians, over the age of 18 volunteer, with the highest rates outside capital cities. Volunteers can be found in all walks of life – from coaching and the sporting field, to counselling and advocacy of refugees; from baking cakes for a school fete to planting trees and maintaining our wetlands.

Volunteers are often the lifeblood of local communities, and it's estimated that volunteering contributes, each year, over 700 million hours of labour and 42 billion dollars to the Australian economy.

Professor Oppenheimer observed that while volunteering has changed significantly since 1945: for example, in the big ticket sporting and popular events it nevertheless remains a special part of Australian life and who we are as a people – our sense of ourselves as helpers and mates. She quotes the home grown, well known examples of Surf Lifesaving and Landcare, and the imported models such as Australian Red Cross and Meals on Wheels.

I can certainly add to those the many other outstanding Australian organisations of which I am Patron, each of them testament to a volunteering sector that is vibrant and thriving right across the nation. But there is nothing more immediate and compelling for me now, at the start of 2011, than what I have witnessed in those areas of Victoria and Queensland devastated by recent flooding. There, I was privileged to see firsthand the remarkable courage and toil and optimism of volunteers: to talk to them about what they'd been through, to try and understand not only what they had done for others, but what they had sacrificed in themselves.

There were members of volunteer emergency services. There were neighbours and community workers. And there were strangers who had lined up with their wellies and brooms returning the call of their State volunteer agencies.

Some of them are here with us this evening. Friends, I want you to know the faith and trust Australians have in you, and the gratitude and admiration we feel for your extraordinary efforts in these distressing and demanding times. Your resolve and actions have altered the course of lives close to you, and they have brought you here in support of a worldwide movement.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure tonight to launch IYV+10 – the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Volunteer.

Please, enjoy your evening together, and Vita Activa!