The Red Cross released results from a survey this week which show 45 percent of Australians believe we are less compassionate than we were 10 years ago.
While Australians overwhelmingly believe the vulnerable groups in society need more help, far fewer actually involve ourselves in providing it.
I asked Kalgoorlie Miner reporter Zoe Rudder to look at the local implications of these survey results.
She obtained opinions that Goldfields residents are generous when it comes to donating money and goods, but not their time, according to local charities.
Salvation Army officer captain Lynn Jones said people in the Goldfields were particularly generous when it comes to donating goods.
“In general I find people are much, much more likely to donate goods than cash,” she said.
Captain Jones said because of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s transient population, people often donated a lot of household goods at the end of their stay and these goods were then available for those in need or sold to raise funds.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service WA chairman Tony Crook said Kalgoorlie-Boulder was a particularly generous town when it came to cash donations.
I say: We live in an affluent community. People are prepared to donate materials, but not labor; body but not heart or soul.
I suspect the donation of cash and goods is also under the squeeze. People give goods because they don’t want them and money because they either feel obliged or they have plenty of it.
I don’t think Kalgoorlie-Boulder is unique in this regard. I’d say it’s true of most Australian communities except small rural towns and agricultural centres where there’s a greater sense of place.
We are largely no different to the aristocracy of the last millennium; nobles who gave coins to the poor.
The aristocracy today contains most of us who have jobs and houses. The poor are the disabled, the jobless, the homeless and the disadvantaged.
Because the government provides welfare many of us think we can switch off when it comes to assisting the less fortunate. Or we satisfy our sense of obligation through cash or attending a charity ball.
I’m as guilty of this as anyone and I’m not casting a blanket of shame over this community or society in general.
Australian Red Cross acting chief executive Dale Cleaver said the findings were not a reason for disillusionment, but for action.
He highlighted the gap between the perceived level of need and the actual help provided by Australians to vulnerable groups.
“Perhaps people feel overwhelmed, and don’t know how to offer help,” he said. “But it doesn’t have to be difficult to support vulnerable people.”
