More Focus on Volunteering Urged of Productivity Commission

Volunteering Victoria submits that given the focus of the Terms of Reference, and the recognition in the Draft Report that only 10% of the 600,000 strong NFP sector are employers, the Inquiry recommendations should focus on the barriers to sustainability of volunteering involving organisations (VIO’s).

The submission argues that volunteers, and VIOs, don’t have the level of funding and support (governmental and otherwise) that is available to the 59,000 NFP employers.

While the submission acknowledges these NFP’s face challenges, it says they exist within a resourced environment which contributes 4.1% of the Australian GDP, and therefore has significant infrastructure. Volunteering Victoria contends that the only substantive infrastructure VIOs have is the infrastructure of commitment and participation.

The submission contends that the underlying assumption in the recommendations appears to be that a focus on facilitating NFP business operations will promote responses to social exclusion – an assumption that Volunteering Victoria argues is seriously flawed. It argues the focus on business has only partial relevance to the vast majority of VIOs.

In its submission Volunteering Victoria puts forward 6 specific recommendations that should be added to the Draft Report – a review of funding structures with proportionality between contribution and levels of support; a Federal Government commitment to an innovation partnership with volunteers, development of a diversity plan by government to increase diversity in volunteering, address within the Social Compact the role of volunteering in community strengthening, a Federal Government commitment to consultation when funded programs include volunteering as an ‘input’, and greater consultation with stakeholders around assistance in resolving governance challenges by small organisations.

Read the submission in full at www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/92542/subdr192.pdf

Read all the submission to the Draft Report at www.pc.gov.au/projects/study/not-for-profit/submissions