Articles, speeches and content brought to you by Australian Unity
Australian Unity supports the Uluru Statement from the heart and offers it's thoughts on the need for Constitutional entrenchment of recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a submission to a Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Recognition that is examining the path forward.
On Friday 2 March 2018, CEO of our Independent and Assisted Living business, Kevin McCoy gave a speech to the CEDA members in Melbourne. He discussed the challenges our clients face and in particular our elderly clients and what we, as a nation, need to do to prepare for the future with an ageing population. Read an edited version of Kevin’s speech here.
Potential workforce shortfall of 260,000 carers and nurses by 2025. Government budgets under threat. Business as usual "no longer an option".
Australia faces shortfalls of hundreds of thousands of critical staff such as nurses and formal carers in less than 10 years, and will need to spend tens of billions extra on aged care and hospital beds alone to meet skyrocketing demand, a new report warns.
On Australia Day 2018, Australian Unity hosted the Great Australia Day Breakfast at Parliament House, Melbourne. Each year a guest speaker shines a light on a subject close to the heart of our organisation. This year Maryanne Diamond AO spoke about "The dignity of risk". Maryanne is an internationally recognised disability advocate and spoke about how taking risk is a normal part of everyday life and people living with a disability should be allowed to take those risks too.
As part of the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index project, Australian Unity has partnered with Deakin University on a study examining whether an App-based monitoring and mindfulness program (StressLess) can support voluntary carers.
Australian Unity has raised concerns about the potential for unintended consequences of proposed legislation regarding the accountability and remuneration of banking executives.
In a submission to Treasury dated 28 September, 2017, Australian Unity noted that the draft legislation failed to consider the case where an authorised deposit taking institution was a subsidiary of a larger organisation.
As provider of in-home care to tens of thousands of Australians. Australian Unity believes that consumer-directed care is an appropriate model for the in-home aged care sector, that (aside from special needs groups) a nationally consistent approach to assigning home care packages is in the best interests of older Australians, and that red-tape reduction for providers is a crucial goal in ensuring the sector's long- term sustainability.
Australian Unity is calling on the federal government for a change in the law to better recognise the status of mutual organisations in the Corporations Act and to enable mutual organisations to raise capital through a new form of instrument, a Mutual Capital Instrument.
The federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has appointed an Independent Facilitator, Greg Hammond AO, to examine whether and how to recognise mutual organisations in the Corporations Act, after an earlier Senate Inquiry into the matter.
Australian Unity's Great Australia Day breakfast in Parliament House was the venue for a speech by former Coalition minister Ian Macfarlane that stirred considerable discussion about whether 26th January is the appropriate date to celebrate Australia Day.