It was with a great deal of pleasure that the Club invited His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffrey AC CVO MC, Governor-General Of The Commonwealth Of Australia to deliver the thirty-seventh Sir Angus Mitchell Oration on 27th February 2008.

This is the text of his presentation, "Honouring The Volunteer", to the Club.

"Good afternoon.

Marlena and I are pleased to join you today and I value this opportunity to deliver The Angus Mitchell Oration on the topic ‘Honour the Volunteer’; the theme chosen by Peter McCall for his Presidency this year.

And what a great theme it is, giving purpose and substance to Club members to reflect on and guide your activities as the year unfolds.

The fundamental tenets of Rotary are defined in your wonderful motto ‘service above self’ and of course your Four-Way Test.

Indeed, the mark of a committed Rotarian is how these powerful principles are applied to daily life.

And the same is true of volunteerism.

So Peter has set a challenging test for himself and for the Club this year.

As we all know, in challenging ourselves, we learn and grow as individuals.

This is also true for organisations and Peter’s novel approach is in keeping with the tradition of this Club in breaking new ground — as the first Rotary Club in Australia — and a Club that has fathered and indeed grandfathered many other clubs in its lifetime of more than 85 years.

It is also relevant to the life’s work of Sir Angus Mitchell whom we honour today with this Oration.

Sir Angus’ many community activities would be well known to you, including initiating the Port Melbourne settlement for unemployed youth during the Depression, and his work with the Boy Scouts' Association and the Victorian Society for Crippled Children.

But I think what really stands out, is his work to promote international understanding and reconciliation, following the Second World War.

This resulted in five Rotary clubs in Japan and two in Germany being readmitted to Rotary International following that War.

A remarkable achievement and a tremendous mechanism for healing, at a time when the divide between many of the great powers of the world had never been greater.

As a proud Paul Harris Fellow, I’ve always been a strong supporter of Rotary, and indeed as Governor of Western Australia and in my present appointment, I have had the pleasure of attending many Rotary events.

With over a century having elapsed since the foundation of Rotary by Paul Harris in Chicago in February 1905, we now celebrate an organisation that has prospered, because of the simplicity and timeless relevance of the principles on which it was founded, namely:

• ‘service above self’,
• acquaintance as an opportunity for service
• high ethical standards
• the advancement of international goodwill, and
• of course, the ‘four-way test’:
  - Is it the truth?
  - Is it fair to all concerned?
  - Will it build good will and better friendships?
  - Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Magnificent principles all.

As Rotarians, you can look back on a century of meaningful achievement; of men and women accepting challenges, providing solutions, transforming communities, living and working to high ethical standards, and, individually and collectively, being wonderful role models throughout the world.

I was intrigued to note in the absorbing history of your Club by Owen Parnaby that Paul Harris once said:
‘Rotary was born of the spirit of tolerance, goodwill and service, all qualities that characterised New England folk of my boyhood days’.

These are timeless qualities indeed, and with a global impact.

Rotary’s growth in 100 years has been extraordinary – in 2008 there are 1.2 million members and close to 31,000 clubs in nearly every nation, making this the world’s largest international humanitarian service organisation.

I would suggest that Rotary has two great strengths.

First, each Rotary Club is a microcosm of the wider business and professional community.

This encourages creativity and dynamism, and discourages ‘clubbish’ complacency.
Secondly, Rotary is primarily about service; about action.

I’ve always been impressed with the way Rotary meetings address the business at hand in a no nonsense way and invariably within the breakfast or luncheon hour; that is without procrastination or sidetracking. You cut to the chase – an approach that, above all else, gets things done.

So let us cut to the chase as we honour the volunteer today.

Australia has more than 5 million people giving some 713 million hours per year as volunteers.

This is a very significant contribution to the life of the nation and the well-being of our citizenry.

In the gubernatorial role, Marlena and I have had the immense privilege of meeting and speaking to many of the people from all walks of life who make up the ranks of Australia’s cohort of volunteers.

In my recent Australia Day Address to the nation, I mentioned some of the special moments we have shared and the special people we have had the privilege of meeting.

These included:

• the extraordinary community and national response to the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004; and

• the steadfast efforts of our emergency services volunteers and firefighters in responding to natural disasters like Cyclone Larry in Far North Queensland, the fierce bushfires in Victoria and the floods in Newcastle and Maitland in New South Wales, and more recently Emerald and Mackay in Queensland.

Marlena I have also had the privilege of being patron to around 200 community organisations between us, most with a considerable volunteer component.

Organisations who are using volunteers to make a practical difference to people’s lives including: Meals on Wheels, Carers Australia, the Red Cross, the RSL, Legacy, the RSPCA, Transplant Australia and many many more.

Through the Honours and Awards system, I have had the privilege of approving more than 40,000 honours and awards in my term as Governor-General, and then investing a number of these recipients with their award in twice-yearly held ceremonies at Government House.

A large number of these people have been volunteers and they include some extraordinary people — a gentleman who has spent fifty years on night patrol searching out and caring for homeless men, and a lady who for over thirty years lovingly fostered three or four infants each year until suitable parents could be found. The volunteer ambulance driver servicing country roads for 30 years – day, night and weekends.

We should make no mistake — volunteering is everywhere and permeates all walks of our society.

It is not always done in an official capacity or through a community organisation.

For example, a report released late last year by the Institute of Health and Welfare noted almost half those aged 65 to 74 years provide unpaid assistance to someone outside their household.

I mentioned Australia’s honours and awards system where we see the unofficial volunteer spirit quite clearly in the nearly 2,500 bravery awards that have been presented since the scheme began in 1975.

At first glance, we may not immediately equate bravery with volunteering, but we should recognise that bravery is conduct in which a person chooses or volunteers to put themselves in very real, physical danger in order to protect a person, property or the environment.

But this is just the tip of the unofficial army of volunteers.

Carers Australia estimate there are 2.6 million unpaid family carers in Australia — more than 1 in 8 of us.

And we also need to recognise that volunteering by Australians takes a number of forms — many of our volunteers are overseas working in government sponsored programs, such as Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development, Australian Business Volunteers and Australian Volunteers International.

So why do people volunteer?

What is it that makes them sacrifice time, energy, expertise and sometimes money to assist others? Especially when this can eat into their own leisure time or time spent with their families?

Fundamentally, it is because we want to help a mate.

I note that some of the worst natural disasters — such as flood, fire and drought — are also those in which we as a nation, invariably rely on tens of thousands of emergency service and other support organisation volunteers, being ready to instantly drop what they are doing to report for duty to the local emergency service depot or regional control centre, and frequently in the traditional annual holiday period.

What this highlights very clearly is that the volunteer spirit in Australia is an important part of our national psyche — in times of natural disaster, our belief in helping a mate overrides all other considerations.

And it can come at a price.

Sadly, I recall that in the Canberra firestorm of 2003, at least one firefighter tragically lost his own home to the blaze while saving the homes of others. Indeed on several occasions I have observed an empty half destroyed house and found its owner helping someone down the road ‘who was worse off than me’ unquote.

We should also note with gratitude that Carers Australia has estimated that the cost of replacing the 2.6 million unpaid family carers I mentioned earlier with formal services in the home, would be in excess of $30 billion annually.

While this is a staggering sum, we would be wrong in equating the monetary cost of services provided by volunteers as their total value to the community.

The value of our volunteers goes much beyond the cost of replacement services.

It gets to the very spirit of our nation; a core belief.

Australians volunteer because they intuitively understand it is the right thing to do and they wish to support others in the community in need of assistance or less fortunate than themselves.

They understand the value of making the extra effort to extinguish a small fire on a neighbour’s property before it gets out of control and threatens their community.

They delight in being able to use their time and expertise to support others in need; ‘Meals on Wheels’, Surf-Lifesavers, St John’s Ambulance and Legacy volunteers for example.

Do you know that our lifesavers in 100 years of voluntary service have saved over 500,000 lives and never lost a person swimming between the flags. Incredible!

Invariably, our volunteers possess strong personal values — deeply held beliefs that in making a practical difference to the lives of others, the whole community benefits.

Many go without recognition or reward — nor do they seek it.

And of the two, recognition is seen as more important than reward.

To assist us as a society to recognise and value the contribution of our volunteers, I have made it a special mission to highlight the remarkable and inspiring activities that are undertaken across the nation on a daily basis, through visits, speeches and by recording these activities on our very good Government House website – www.gg.gov.au.

There is an historical context to volunteering, when we were by and large a rural nation and the majority of the population was more exposed to the trials of flood, fire, drought and isolation and for which government support organisations simply did not exist or were too far away to assist.

So to help a mate in need down the road became the norm.

You helped him today and he helped you next week.

As such, the idea of helping others is very strongly part of our national character, especially in the bush, but also evident in our wartime experiences, where to never leave a mate, to always share with a mate; be it water, rations or sentry duty was very much part of the caring and mentoring ethos.

One challenge we have as a nation is to ensure that our young people, who may be vulnerable to influence from other cultures or may not have a sufficient grasp of our history, will ignore the importance of this aspect of our character.

And in passing, I note that as a nation of migrants, our new arrivals will through no fault of their own, not necessarily be aware of, or properly understand this essential aspect of our culture.

It is good that this has been addressed by the Parliament through the introduction of the citizenship test, which makes explicit mention of the importance of volunteering in the accompanying resource book.

One of the most powerful ways in which we can encourage young people to become volunteers is to demonstrate the value of volunteering in a personal way through the aegis of mentoring — in which the knowledge and wisdom of adults is used to guide and inform the thinking and decision-making of youth.

To be mentored is to receive freely the great gift of another person’s time, wisdom and interest.

The recipient can repay that gift by himself becoming a mentor in the future.

Mentoring can be a powerful tool to help a culture of volunteerism among Australia’s youth.

Indeed, I have said on numerous occasions that if every young boy and girl has the opportunity and encouragement to belong to a well-led organisation such as the Cadets, Scouts, Guides, Surf-Lifesavers and so on, they will strengthen their sense of community belonging, learn new skills, challenge themselves to higher levels of achievement and increase their self esteem.

But to run these worthy organisations, we need good volunteer leaders and administrators.

Young people so led are much more likely to appreciate the value of the gift given to them by their leaders and repay that gift as a volunteer or mentor later in life.

Well-orchestrated mentoring – including in subjects such as literacy and numeracy – can be of extraordinary value to young people in achieving a productive and happy life.

I have spoken in the past of the problems of many young boys – growing up without access to a good male role model, either at home or at primary school where some 90 per cent of our teachers are women.

We need many more good male role model mentors – men who can assist with key aspects of relationship building – on guiding young males on how to treat others, be it siblings, girlfriends, wives, partners or children. Such role modelling requires a sense of caring, a capacity to communicate, and preparedness to stay the distance.

Mentoring also has another dimension; in supporting young people who in showing capacity in a particular area, be it in say music, mathematics or sport, may need someone of influence to open the doors to opportunity and choice. The Sir John Monash awards are a good example of this.

Mentoring is not about theory or inspiring words – it is about reality; giving young Australians in need or with potential, a caring shoulder on which to lean, and for a sustained period.

As Governor of Western Australia and in my present role, I have been a strong supporter of the School Volunteer Program, formerly based in WA but now expanding Australia wide.

With this program some 2000 ‘grandparent equivalents’, on invitation from Western Australian schools, mentor one on one, some 4500 children annually who are lacking in literacy, numeracy and social skills.

The results have been incredible. Think what we would achieve in improving the social condition with say 20 000 mentors Australia wide.

I also take pride in the fact that I had something to do with the successful introduction into Western Australian schools in the 1990s of the School Chaplaincy Program, and have been a passionate supporter of its development nation wide ever since.

As of late last year, more than 2,630 schools, or 27 per cent of schools around Australia have received funding approvals under this Program.

A chaplain’s pastoral care and counselling includes dealing with personal problems at school, broken homes, truancy, leaving home, abuse, suicide, illness, births, deaths, drugs, alcohol, police trouble, community services, financial needs, or study skills.

A chaplain besides his or her spiritual calling is thus a social worker, teacher and mentor; never highly paid, often a volunteer.

In Western Australia more than 93 per cent of high school principals indicated their chaplain’s work was simply indispensable to a good school environment.

Recognising the valuable work Rotary does in many areas such as mental health, I urge you to think about instituting a mentoring program in this Club.

And in this vein, I should like to add to my earlier remarks about bravery.

On behalf of the Australian Bravery Association, Marlena and I host an annual commemorative service in the Bravery Garden, especially designed and set aside for this purpose at Government House in Canberra. We held the service for 2008 just a few weeks ago.

This is always a most moving occasion, and I am always delighted to recognise brave Australians in this way, as well as commending the work of the Australian Bravery Association in their aim to maximise the support available to those who experience physical, emotional or other personal hardship as a result of their brave actions.

In my remarks at the service I applauded the Association for introducing the ‘Guardians of the Brave’ initiative, where they are partnering with the police and emergency services chaplains across the country to provide additional support to brave Australians in need.

Rotary is also one of the partners in this proposal, and I particularly recommend it you today as worthy of your active support.

Ladies and gentlemen

In my Australia Day message to the nation, I indicated that as my term as Governor-General draws to a close, Marlena and I will continue as we have done throughout our term, to encourage all Australians to care for ourselves, for our families, for one another and for the land and environment in which we are so lucky to live.

We can, for example, care for our nation by celebrating our unique 60 millennium history as a settled land and striving for excellence and to be innovative in everything we do.

We can care for one another by nurturing our relationships with family, neighbours and friends.

We can care for the land by taking personal and collective responsibility for its rehabilitation, for the wise use of water, renewable energy and other finite natural resources.

We can care for our children by recognising the critical importance of a loving and stable family, and good nutrition, particularly from conception to the age of five.

All of these caring activities can and will continue to be assisted through the support of Australia’s legion of volunteers.

Rotary is a wonderful community of volunteers, and the Rotary Club of Melbourne in particular, will continue to play an important role in improving the wellbeing and social cohesion of the Australian people.

I see Rotary as one of the great ‘enablers’ of society – people with ideas, goodwill and a sense of purpose, always focussed on grassroots action.

I wish you well as you go about your community activities this year, and I salute you in your noble objective of ‘honouring the volunteer’.

Thank you."