Volunteering is a dying act in Australian society. Despite a federal government investment of $10 million into the volunteering sector in August last year, a mass volunteer shortage continues. In an age where young people have never been more aware and engaged with social and political issues, reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal volunteering rates to be on a disheartening downwards trajectory. At the same time secularism is on the rise. Could the two be connected? Religion is often presented as a key motivator for mission-associated community work. Why do we perform selfless deeds if not for our religion? Is it merely to plump our resumes or sleep easier? Where are our ethics inherited if not from scripture?
As of the latest national census, while Christianity remained Australia’s favourite faith group at 43.9%, its numbers decreased by over one million individuals. Australia is also becoming more religiously diverse, and a staggering ten million Australians reported having “no religion”, not including atheist and agnostic parties. The sharpest drop in religious affiliation was young people aged between eighteen and twenty-five. Increasingly, headlines refer to this group as the “nones”, distinct from atheism due to their neutral, rather removed, stance.
According to Dr Renae Barker, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia Law School, the relationship between public, state and religion has social, legal, and political implications. State-religion relationships, “exist on a spectrum from theocracy where religion and state are fused, through to abolitionist regimes where the state actively seeks to destroy religious belief.” Popularly conceived as a secular state, but with longstanding Christian roots, Australia remains nestled in the middle. I interviewed a number of students at the University of Sydney about their personal experiences grappling with moral ideals in a secular nation. One agnostic, second-generation student explained, “I inherited my values from my parents, and them from their parents.” Another student, an activist stationed at the University of Sydney Pro-Palestine encampment, shared the sentiment that “a lot of religions operate on a basis of fear, and that’s not something our generation buys into as much.” They said that, as a younger generation, “we’ve been given the tools to be more free-thinking and decide what ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is for ourselves.”
What does this mean for volunteering? Since the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteering organisations and charities across Australia have experienced an irreversible drop in community engagement. While around one third of people aged between forty and fifty-four engage in volunteering, just one in five below the age of twenty-four participate. According to the Australian Institute for Health and Wellness (AIHW), these figures dropped over the past decade, from over 34% of adults actively volunteering in 2006 to less than 25% participation in recent years. One study showed that while religious “nones” are less active in their community than religious individuals, atheists and agnostics contribute at similar levels. Indeed, indifferent and apolitical groups seem to volunteer the least.
At the University of Sydney, attitudes largely reflect these statistics. Non-religious students who I spoke to report not having the time to volunteer, stating that while volunteering is something they’ve always been interested in, they simply “don’t have the time during Semester”. In correlation with a decrease in volunteering and faith, the AIHW also reports Australians having less time to devote to “recreation and leisure, and social and community interaction”. Yet for politically active students, a broader problem was the struggle to find organisations and charities they could trust.
Community service has long been associated with missionary work and somewhat problematic narratives surrounding the assertion of white saviourism and religious assimilation. ‘Altruist’ has become synonymous with ‘do-gooder’ and in-need communities are taking a hit due to volunteer shortages. Students looking to find authentic, uncompromised organisations to volunteer with are repeatedly met with challenges finding secular charities. At the Australian Red Cross, a well-respected humanitarian aid provider, religious neutrality is a contentious issue. Heralding the catch-cry: “we don’t walk away when the cameras stop running”, the Red Cross oversaw some 18,450 volunteers per their 2023 annual review. Hosting a Youth Advisory Committee of “diverse young people” as well as First Nations members, the organisation prides itself on diversity. Despite taking these steps, we are yet to witness any tangible change toward the broader culture and upper management of the volunteering sector. They have received international acclaim for their neutrality, a facet which has been constantly challenged since their formation in 1863.
On campus, several collectives exist to attempt to reclaim a platform for secular, youth volunteering such as 180 Degrees Consulting, Effective Altruism, Random Acts of Kindness, and the Food Co-Op among others. More excitingly, student activism offers a safe space for active, grassroots changemaking to function without the shackles of a traditional charity bureaucracy. In fact, if there’s anything inferable from the waves of pro-Palestinian protest taking over the University’scampus, it is that young people’s engagement with social justice is alive and well, if not motivated by missions of faith. Another student protestor told me, “it makes you feel like you’re doing something good and just puts things into perspective. Speaking out against injustice is my faith”.