Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, I will be brief. I want to note that last week, from 19 May to 25 May, was National Volunteer Week. In 2023, the state of volunteering research found that just under – by 0.2 per cent – 70 per cent of Tasmanians aged 15 years and over volunteered their time in 2023.
That is quite an extraordinary effort, because volunteering is the backbone of our community. It has tremendous benefits for those that are doing it as well, from our firefighters and emergency service workers who volunteer, through to the community food hubs that run off the back of volunteers, Meals on Wheels, the Country Women’s Association (CWA), Community Transport Services, and our critical Online Access Centres.
There were various events across the nation that took place, and a very exciting event was the Brighton City Council’s Annual Volunteer Awards. I note that fellow member for Lyons, Mr Jenner, was there, as well as the president of the other place.
I congratulate Geoff Hull from the Brighton Food Hub. It is the third year in a row that the food hub has won an award at that ceremony for the extraordinary work they do.
That same 2023 report by Volunteering Tasmania showed that the staggering figure of 89.4 million hours were volunteered in that year, which enabled $12.1 billion in economic benefit for Tasmania. That cost to replace the labour of Tasmania’s volunteers would be $3.6 billion a year. That is an enormous effort, and it is also shared with a degree of caution that we do not want to become over‑reliant on volunteer efforts and push that pressure by underfunding any kind of services.
An extraordinary volunteer group, which I am sure all members in this place have participated with at some point, is Landcare. They do extraordinary work with community empowerment, from their tree planting through to their invasive species action, whether that is willows, blackberries or gorse. The extraordinary work Bill Harvey is doing, in particular leading the biochar workshops and showing the benefits that can bring, deserves an entire adjournment in itself.
I rise specifically tonight to share Landcare’s Decision Guide for Stray and Feral Cat Management in Tasmania 2025, released at the start of this month. This guide delves into all different kind of land tenures and what anyone, from your individual farmer or household, private property owners through to agricultural businesses and councils, can or cannot do within their area to help control the stray and feral cat problem. This is a huge problem, which is incredibly detrimental to our local fauna, particularly endemic birdlife, and it is critical that we do all that we can to help fix this.
This is a very important guide. It is critical that all members in this place have a copy so they can share it with their constituents. I know the government is still working on the Cat Management Plan 2024‑2029, and it is not quite online yet. In the interim, we have what will prove as a foundational guide. I congratulate Landcare for the work they put into this because it is not easy to pull together anything that crosses different land tenures and levels of government, private and public sectors. What they have done is exceptional. They have condensed it into a report that anyone can get. It was circulated to members earlier today via email.
Honourable Speaker, I wish to seek leave to table the Decision Guide for Stray and Feral Cat Management in Tasmania 2025.
Leave granted.
