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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now to tell us

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Speaker 1: about a bit of a town hall meeting that happened

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Speaker 1: a little earlier this morning is Andrew Lee, the Assistant

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Speaker 1: Minister for Competition, Charities and also Treasury.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to your minister.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. Great to be with you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit more about this meeting that

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Speaker 1: took place earlier this morning.

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Speaker 3: Well, look, Gothing and I got together in Tea Charities

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Speaker 3: this morning to talk about some of the big challenges

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Speaker 3: facing the sector. Over the last generation, we've seen a

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Speaker 3: drop in the share of Australians joining community organizations, donating money,

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Speaker 3: participating and sporting activities or volunteering their time, and so

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Speaker 3: what we wanted to do is to get together some

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Speaker 3: of those remarkable in tea charities to talk about how

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Speaker 3: we turn this around. We had people there from religious organizations,

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Speaker 3: animal welfare organizations, disability support organizations and it was really

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Speaker 3: valuable sharing the ideas and getting a census to what

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Speaker 3: we can do to build a more reconnected Australia.

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Speaker 1: And so what are some of the cans concerns that

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Speaker 1: they were raising at that meeting this morning.

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Speaker 3: One of the big ones is the stability of funding.

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Speaker 4: We saw under the previous government a nine year long

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Speaker 4: war on charities, which left many organizations feeling that if

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Speaker 4: they spoke out and advocated for the people they cared about,

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Speaker 4: that they might lose their funding.

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Speaker 3: And it's important for charities to know that those gag

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Speaker 3: clauses are gone and people don't need to fear that

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Speaker 3: they will have their funding cut off just because they

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Speaker 3: add advocate in the public debate. We also saw concerns

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Speaker 3: about sustaining a volunteer base, so COVID's really taking the

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Speaker 3: two before too volunteering. We need to do more to

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Speaker 3: ensure that organizations have a stable volunteering base.

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Speaker 1: So what really can be done, you know with that

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Speaker 1: in terms of making sure that there is that stable

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Speaker 1: volunteer base, because it can be really difficult to actually

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Speaker 1: run an event and make sure that you've got all

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Speaker 1: the volunteers you need.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. One of the things that organizations are

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Speaker 3: doing quite successfully is trying to allow people to tick

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Speaker 3: two boxes to offer an event which which fulfills a

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Speaker 3: couple of purposes. I actually think you're run with that

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Speaker 3: event is there is a classic example of this, so

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Speaker 3: it raises money for prostate cancer. It allows people to

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Speaker 3: stay fit, but it also gets men talking about prostate cancer.

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Speaker 3: So those kinds of events where people are able to

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Speaker 3: fit something into their busy schedules because they know they're

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Speaker 3: serving multiple purposes. I think the way of the future

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Speaker 3: for many volunteer organizations.

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Speaker 1: Well, and we all hope so, you know, we always

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Speaker 1: want to make sure that you know that you've got

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Speaker 1: plenty of volunteers, because it takes an army to put

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Speaker 1: on a charity event, and I guess that's the tough part.

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Speaker 1: You know, the bigger the event gets for some of

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Speaker 1: our wonderful Northern Territory charities, sometimes the harder it gets

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Speaker 1: if you can't sort of you know, if you can't

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Speaker 1: find those volunteers. Is there ways that you know that

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Speaker 1: for some of those different charities you can link up

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Speaker 1: as well with some of the bigger organizations around the place,

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Speaker 1: and maybe organizations could be slightly more generous in terms

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Speaker 1: of maybe giving people a you know, half a day

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Speaker 1: to volunteer for a charity.

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Speaker 3: It's a great point, Katie, And one of the things

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Speaker 3: we're trying to do is to work in with big

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Speaker 3: corporates as to how the corporate volunteering works, because the

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Speaker 3: worst of corporate volunteering is a team building exercise and

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Speaker 3: a Friday afternoon where everyone goes down the paint of

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Speaker 3: fence of a charity. The best of it is when

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Speaker 3: you're tapping into the expert skills of organizations, having tradees

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Speaker 3: help me, helping out using their expertise, or getting accountants

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Speaker 3: to do the books of a charity. So being, one

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Speaker 3: thing I want to do with the assistant NURST of

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Speaker 3: a charity is to be a better breach between corporate

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Speaker 3: Australia and our fabulous volunteering sector.

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Speaker 2: And so where to from here?

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Speaker 1: Following on from the town hall meeting this morning, you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously there's been some concerns raised or some of the

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Speaker 1: different things that.

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Speaker 2: They're they're grappling with the charity. So where to from here?

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Speaker 3: We really want to create in Australia in which the

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Speaker 3: next person who wants to set up a run with

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Speaker 3: Data event is easier able to do it where they

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Speaker 3: have the mentors, the access to donations and the volunteer base.

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Speaker 3: So that's our starting point. We've got an ambition to

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Speaker 3: double Australia's philanthropy levels by twenty thirty. We're working with

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Speaker 3: states and territories to streamline the fundraising process, and we're

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Speaker 3: engaging with volunteering groups to make sure that people who

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Speaker 3: want to give more time are able to easily find

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Speaker 3: an opportunity. And the Volunteering SA and NT has a

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Speaker 3: great website, So any of your listeners who want to volunteer,

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Speaker 3: I'd urge them to jump on that website and they'll

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Speaker 3: be able to search through the database and find a

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Speaker 3: good volunteering of events for them.

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Speaker 2: All good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Well, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Lee,

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Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for having a.

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Speaker 2: Chat with us.

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Speaker 3: Pleasure. Always great to chat to a fellow runner.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Although it's a bit hard at the moment, it's very

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Speaker 1: hot it is.

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Speaker 3: I went for a swim in parap pool this morning.

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Speaker 4: I decided it was braver than going running. I'm gonna

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Speaker 4: pay my running and want to get back to Camboro.

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Speaker 2: Probably a good plan. Good on your minister, Thank you,

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Speaker 2: Thanks Catty, thank you