More than $800,000 has been raised in Canberra and the region and more than $8 million nationally at the Vinnies CEO Sleepout on Thursday night to help the homeless.
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00:00And that money will go to support our homes.
00:30It keeps our night patrol vans on the road. They're out every other week and generally help those who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
00:47Can I say that such an important milestone for me personally, and that is that after 13 years of volunteering with the wonderful CEO Sleepout, I have at long last achieved my personal target of $300,000.
01:06And every dollar goes to our homeless people here in Canberra. What a wonderful cause. And I thank all of my very generous donors across the ACT and of course beyond.
01:20Well this is my first Vinnies CEO Sleepout and there's no better place to do it than the People's House, which is going to be Vinnies House tonight. I'm with Dave Smith, the member for Veen. Dave, you're a veteran. How many have you done?
01:40Yeah, this is number 10 and finally we're doing it here.
01:45Well it's great to support Vinnies and hopefully to get some sleep, but more importantly, keep raising some money tonight.
01:52And people can still donate on the Vinnies CEO Sleepout website and it all goes to such amazing use, not just in Canberra, right across the region, right across the country.
02:10You go. You go first, mate. You go first.
02:13Alright. Every time somebody comes, whether it's their first year or like Keith Cantlie in his 12th year, you do wake up the next morning and you have an experience you're not going to replicate. Even every year it's a different experience because of the studies that we talk about and the test cases and all the experiences that the very experienced Vinnies staff have.
02:37I think it's a really important fundraiser for a charity that does amazing work and that's really how I summarise it.
02:44Because I know there are critics who say this is rich people cosplaying and pretending that they're homeless.
02:51Listen, we're talking about raising dozens of millions of dollars every year for this really important charity.
02:58And if people can find a better way to do it, well then we'll do that.
03:01Until such time as they do, we're going to do this because Vinnies absolutely rock.
03:08And we are talking about the little 1.5% experience that we have is nothing like our friends feel out in the homeless world.
03:19We're just scratching the surface here and every year learning so much.
03:25And I think the more people learn, the more they understand.
03:28And whether you're a bureaucrat in government, it can affect how you deliver social policy.
03:33Yeah, big time. Big time.
03:35I mean, we think it's really important. It's eight years for me and how many for you?
03:39Four years for me. I'm a rookie.
03:41Yeah, but she raises more money than I do. Don't worry about that. She's really, really good at it.
03:46But it's just a pleasure to be here and it's a pleasure to be surrounded by some wonderful volunteers and staff from Vinnies.
03:54Cos they're just awesome people.