Tasmania Division President's Report - July 2024

03 Jul 2024

Happy new financial year and I hope you are all keeping as warm as possible as we start to experience the cold morning starts. It has been a busy time for your local Tasmanian AVA division with many advocacy issues being addressed and conferences to be organised.

I recently attended the Council of Presidents meeting in Melbourne prior to the national AVA conference. This is an opportunity for all state presidents, presidents of SIGs and the AVA board to meet and discuss how the AVA can continue to work for you and the profession. It was an amazing experience that has rejuvenated my passion for this role and led to many ideas being discussed (and hopefully implemented).

I am truly blown away by the passion of vets in our incredible profession, and an honour to be a part of it. Our own AVA Tasmanian Division Annual Meeting will be held at 7pm on Tuesday 30th of July. Please add this important date to your calendar and come along to discuss what the AVA is doing for your industry both locally and nationally.

We are also well underway with the planning of the Tasmanian Conference. This year, we have moved the date forwarded to try to avoid the number of clashes that seem to occur each November. This year, it will be held on the weekend of the 13-15th September at the Country Club in Launceston. We will be focusing on small animal surgery and will have our nurse stream complimenting this. Come along and support your local conference, which is always a good time!

Advocacy continues to be the main-stay of what we are focussing on. We have a meeting with Minister Howlett in July to discuss their election commitment of $400,000 to assist the local veterinary workforce. There is also unpaid work survey created by Dr Kristen Steele. Dr Steele has called most Tasmanian veterinary practices so that Tasmanian data is included in Veterinarians, what don’t you get paid for?  Please complete your data entry ASAP.  A summary of questions is available by emailing: kristen.steele@ava.com.au.  Don’t make it onerous- quick realistic estimates are ok! Just make sure your data is included to represent Tasmania. 

Thanks

Rhianna