A WORD FROM JAMES
James Kelly
11 December 2020
Welcome to our autumn newsletter. First I would like to welcome Ros to the office, who started as our Administration Officer late last year. Previous to Ros, Brooke worked in this role and last week we had a visit from Brooke and her three week old baby boy Huey. They are both doing very well.
Caitlin is in the final stages of planning a well earned long service leave road trip to Western Australia over April to June this year. This is of course made all the harder by frequent border closures but we’re confident they’ll be able to get away. The team has got plans in place to cover Caitlin’s absence and we wish Caitlin and Josh all the best for what will be the trip of a lifetime. Thanks for all the travel advice already received as many of you have recounted stories travelling that side of the country.
We all hope the rolling lockdowns will become a thing of the past as we pass the 12 month mark since COVID-19 started in Australia. Most business sectors seem to be recovering, with the notable exceptions of tourism and international travel. With the Jobseeker supplement and Jobkeeper due to end in late March the government has just announced a tourism package of grants and loans. There are now less than 1 million people on Jobkeeper, however a disproportionate number are in tourism related areas.
The financial advice profession is continuing to progress at a fast rate following the Banking Royal Commission in 2019. Later in the newsletter I have got an update on the NAB sale to IOOF, and correspondence you may receive regarding fee refunds and compensation.
Thank you to the Warrnambool Lawn Tennis club for running another great corporate bowls competition this year. Ambleside had a bit more success this year and ended up mid pack (instead of closer to the bottom!) Things nearly got derailed with the snap lockdown in the middle but thankfully this was short lived.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety released their final report on 26th February 2021. The findings were largely foreshadowed in the interim report released October 2019, but it still made for difficult reading.
The bottom line is the sector is chronically underfunded. This is evident in low wages, low staff to resident ratios and reports the average daily spend on meals was $6 per person. It is also exasperated because many centres are run by private enterprises, who aim to maximise return to shareholders.
The government has committed to ‘fixing’ the system, however there have been 18 major enquiries, with similar findings, since 1997. We will watch the government’s response with interest.
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