News
AMA Federal Agreement Negotiations & Board Update
Thursday March 28, 2024
Many of you will shortly be celebrating Easter and perhaps the start of the school holidays, and we wanted to ensure that before your break you had a Board update, including our negotiations with AMA Federal to resolve the current impasse.
In particular, we sent the AMA Federal Board Chair the letter you will find here. Our communication with AMA Federal seeks at all times to be conciliatory, respectful and professional, and aims to progress negotiations promptly but with our members’ best interests central at all times.
To this end, we have elected a new negotiation team, as outlined in the letter. We believe Dr Michael Page, Dr Katharine Noonan and Dr Mary Wyatt provide the right leadership combination to effect results on behalf of all AMA (WA) members.
In a historic first for AMA (WA), we have also recently appointed two non-medical, independent new Board Directors as permitted by the Constitutional changes passed at last year’s AGM. At such a critical moment for the Association, it is a big positive to have two highly credentialled people in Dr Lianne Cretney-Barnes and Justin James join us in guiding the operations of the AMA (WA). It is an important step to modernising and strengthening the governance of our Association, and bringing particular skills and experience that might be difficult to find within our own profession.
Dr Cretney-Barnes lectures in corporate governance and founded Board Connexions to help executives and board directors with governance, leadership and strategy. She has an impressive client portfolio across business, government, and the community sector. She is the first female chair of the Integrity Assurance Committee for Racing and Wagering Western Australia. She is also deputy chair of ChemCentre (WA) and the WA representative for Women on Boards.
Justin James would be well known to many at the AMA (WA) as the CEO at HIF health fund, and has a decade of experience in the healthcare sector. He has a prominent media presence and displays significant industry leadership.
We welcome their input and look forward to their contributions at board level.
The AMA (WA) continues to meet with our counterparts from the Queensland, Victoria and South Australia AMAs to discuss the reforms we believe are necessary to repair relations between the State and Federal bodies. With this alliance representing a significant proportion of the membership of the AMA throughout the country, it demonstrates the need for reform. We will continue to impress on AMA Federal the necessity for a renewed relationship that appropriately recognises the complex and expensive frontline activities that the AMA (WA) undertakes on behalf of WA doctors.
This specifically includes the industrial arenas of both public and private practice. Most other states don’t have this cost burden, as they don’t exist in a state-based industrial system.
We look forward to providing further updates and information. As you can see, we are taking the initiative to provide the grounds for negotiations to resume and the AMA (WA) to thrive.
In the meantime, we will continue to provide all the necessary services to you as members. Should you have any queries, please email board.chair@amawa.com.au. Additionaly, to answer any further questions you have regarding the AMA Federal negotiations and how this impacts the services and benefits you receive as a member of the AMA (WA), please read our FAQs here.
We wish you all an enjoyable and restful Easter holiday period with family and friends.
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