Grassroots members of Country Women’s Association have been given the chance to take their views on their organisation’s future straight to the top.
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Danica Leys, the chief executive officer of the CWA of NSW, was in Ganmain on Wednesday to attend the annual Riverina group conference.
Ms Ley, who has been the organisation’s CEO for 18 months, said she attending events around the state to meet with as many members as possible.
She spoke to the members about the structure of the association and encouraged them to share their views on the future of the CWA.
“This is a chance to get feedback from members about their ideas for the future,” Ms Ley said.
Health and education were also on the minds of members at the conference.
Members discussed two resolutions that were being proposed for debate at the next CWA State conference.
The Pleasant Hills branch asked members to push for formal recognition of early childhood education and care services as Australian registered schools under the current Education Act so that university-qualified teachers can work in both these services and in Australia schools, with equal access to pay rates and accredition.
Riverina members backed the call and will now ask their association at a state level to debate the issue.
The Wagga evening branch also won support for its call to have the state association ask Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to push for wider use of the Hi-Caps system by health professionals to help speed up Medicare refunds.
Hi-Caps is an electronic claims and payments system, which offers patients immediate processing of their medical bills and Medicare claims at the office of health professionals.
Riverina group president Anne Phegan said issues like these demonstrated one of the ways in which the CWA was both sticking to its core belief of taking looking after the interests of country families, particularly women and children, while also adopting change.
Mrs Phegan, who sits on the association’s state executive committee, believes embracing new technology is important for the ongoing success of the CWA.
“Technology is here and we are embracing it and need to continue to embrace it,” Mrs Phegan said.