National President's letter to Associations February 2004
Dear Members
Firstly may I thank those Associations who nominated me to this position - I shall try very hard to justify your confidence in me. I would have preferred to face an election for this important position, but hope that those Associations who did not nominate were happy with my acceptance. I look back on those who have held this position since my time in Queensland and realise that I have a tremendous responsibility to carry on their work and continue to keep the Country Women’s Association of Australia in the place of prominence it occupies with the Australian Government.
During the years 1994 - 2003 I have had the privilege of representing the Association on behalf of Mrs Sylvia Laxton, Mrs Margaret Smith and Mrs Marie Lally and appreciate the opportunity this has given me to understand the role of National representative. I also look back on the knowledge gained in my term as National Treasurer and thank Mrs Laxton for her faith in me at that time. I thank Mrs Ann Garlinge and Mrs Yvonne Protheroe for accepting the appointments of National Secretary and National Treasurer as these are challenging roles. It is (I think) the first time that the National Executive has been able to work electronically which does tend to speed up the communication processes. We also use electronic contact for the Associations.
The National Office does indeed hold an important place where we are asked to bring forward the views of the membership and as well as the areas where we have held appointments to various advisory councils and groups, I, as your National President am being constantly asked to provide input into various Australian Government policies and enquiries. I am pleased that the Association Presidents are prepared to take time from their already busy lives to network these requests out to the members, because I can assure you, the Government does not need and is not interested in my personal views on these issues, but truly wants representation on behalf of you the members. Let’s hope that we can make this work, as I would prefer not to appoint a separate National Social Issues Fact Finding Team.
I will take a moment in this, my first letter, to list the areas where we currently represent (these may make for tedious reading, but will I hope provide an explanation of the totality of our work so please bear with me?):
- Farmsafe Australia
- Personal Taxes Advisory Group (PTAG)
- National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA)
- Rural Education Forum of Australia (REFA)
- Food Safety Information Council (FSIC)
- Consumer Telecommunications Network (CTN) where we have recently regained our Council appointment.
- Australian Consumer Competition Council, Consumer Consultative Committee (ACCC CCC) fondly known as AC to the sixth power.
- National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC), which is funded by and sits under the Office of the Status of Women (OSW). This latest Secretariat also includes Australian Women in Agriculture, the Foundation of Australian Agricultural Women, Australian Women in Local Government Association, Women’s Industry Network Seafood Community Inc, the National Rural Health Alliance, an indigenous woman representative and us. A most formidable group to which the Office of the Status of Women is looking for advice on major policy issues and directives concerning rural women.
We have also been asked to nominate to ACIF (the main telecommunication advisory council to the industry) and should know the results of that nomination by August. Although also approached by the Telecommunications Consumer Consultative Council (this being a body who monitors the performance of the major Telecommunications providers) to put our name forward, there did not seem to be a category of representation that suited us, and therefore will not seek to rejoin that Council at this time - perhaps next year. In the meantime, we are represented by the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association nominee and in fact have had very little feed back. It may seem that we risk overlap in the telecommunications area, but each of these bodies are tasked with quite different issues, and all want to hear your voice.
The Rural Training Council of Australia has been undergoing an internal reworking of its role and representation, and I shall attend the adjourned Annual Meeting and first Council meeting in April.
The Rural Women’s Advisory Group (RWAG) has been disbanded and although it reported to AFFA (Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia) it has been agreed by government that this advisory role can now be fulfilled by RWAC (The Rural Women’s Advisory Council) which has been appointed by Deputy Prime Minister Anderson and where Mrs Lally sits “in her own right”.
Our Association has also been asked for input into a Senate Enquiry “Increasing Mature Age Participation in the Workforce”; to endorse a paper put forward by the Rural Doctors Association of Australia aimed at providing better services to Rural and Remote communities; the Drought Policy Task Force; the ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Services) project “Services First” which asks the Government to apply the budget surplus to provision of services instead of further tax cuts; the ACCC project to identify business exploitation of vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers; the new International Air Transport Association agreement; the Voluntary Industry Codes currently before the ACCC; National Rural Health Alliance papers on Mental Health, Bonded Scholarships, Specialist Outreach Service evaluation, the National Prescribing Service, Palliative Care, and the review of the role of Divisions of General Practice. And I can be reasonably certain that I have missed some.
You can see from this list that the National Executive and your Association Presidents have been very busy on your behalf!
It is well that most of the organisations where we represent now teleconference their regular meetings - many meet only once per year with a face to face annual, some government advisory groups meet two or three times face to face and on all occasions I have made the commitment that our Association cannot afford to attend unless funded to do so by way of provision of travel and accommodation. I appreciate that the Association Presidents have been able to nominate a representative for such things as an ABARE (Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics) conference in South Australia, the ICPA National Conference in Tasmania and the Soroptimists’ International Conference in Sydney. Having members close by able to attend and submit a report is proving to be most efficient and cost effective.
We have held the meeting as directed by Conference to discuss further the issue of the Association becoming a Company Limited by Guarantee - we have still not reached a decision on this, and a discussion paper was prepared by the Presidents and forwarded out to each of the Associations for discussion at whichever level you deem appropriate. This matter will be taken further at the reconvened meeting of the Presidents in Sydney early in July. Our Melbourne meeting was facilitated (pro bono) and also attended by Mr Orm Thomas who has been advising us on this matter. Status quo is that we have excellent liability cover and I have identified that the States and Territory can apply for the old AUSAID funding on their own behalf should they need to do so, so all is well for the moment. Mrs Betty Tothill attended on behalf of South Australia and Mrs Margaret Sullivan was not able to attend, though invited.
I thank you again members, and hope that we will continue to hold our place where we have traditionally done the most good.
With best wishes
Myra Pincott
National President
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