Media Release

THE Federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, was correct to call for a greater Australian spirit of volunteerism but was way off the mark if he thought volunteer groups could pay their bills and survive on public spirit alone.

"It is great to hear the Treasurer supporting neighbourhood community groups and a greater public involvement but these groups can't do it alone without Government support, no matter if they have one volunteer or 1000," Ms Rhonda Galbally, CEO of ourcommunity.com.au, an online resource for Australia's 700,000 community groups said today.

"It is not always lack of volunteers that hold community groups back. It is lack of money.

"No matter how many volunteers groups have, you still need funding to be able to provide the valuable community services, whether that is putting a sporting team on the field, providing meals or a home for the disadvantaged or running a rural town fair committee.

"The nineties were a disaster for the community sector with Governments of all persuasions cutting back funding to all forms of community groups."

Ms Galbally said aside from putting more funding into the community sector, the biggest thing the Government could do to show its support for the volunteer sector was to extend the tax deductibility provisions from the current 52,000 "lucky charities" to all 700,000 groups who provide some form of community support.

"The injustice of the current ridiculous system of tax deductibility should be immediately resolved. Only those groups deemed charities receive deductible gift status which undervalues and ignores the vast majority of the volunteer or community sector. And limits the amount of donations.

"Volunteer groups are not just about charity or soup kitchens. They are about setting up a social support system that hopefully prevents people from getting to the stage where they need serious help."

Ms Galbally said the other most urgent issue faced by community groups was the massive rise in public liability insurance costs in the wake of the HIH disaster.

"Many groups can't afford the rise, in some case more than 300 per cent - and have had to curtail their activity. Mr Costello and Mr Hockey should call an urgent summit to resolve this issue before groups he is calling for volunteers for, close their doors."