3 minute read
From the CEO
The Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Mr Rod Sims, has stated the funeral industry is one of 10 areas of focus for the ACCC in 2020. In response, AFDA has written to the ACCC stating we support any action which improves standards across the funeral industry. AFDA has offered to provide assistance to the ACCC in relation to its areas of concern with the funeral sector.
The focus of the ACCC on the funeral industry and the ongoing media interest once again reiterates my view that multiple funeral industry associations create the potential for mixed industry messages to the Government, varying levels of industry standards and dilutes the overall resource pool. In reality, all associations are attempting to do the same thing, but with different levels of effectiveness, relevance and success, culminating in an inefficient way to promote and support the funeral industry.
This is why I am pleased to see AFDA’s scale, and thus relevance, increase from 45,531 funerals conducted by AFDA members in 2018 to 91,500 in 2020 of the approximate 160,000 deaths that occur in Australia annually.
It is encouraging that over the past 12 months Mc Glynn Hunt Funerals, Newhaven Funerals Mackay, Logan & Co Funeral Service, Dawsons Funeral Home, Hall Funerals, Newhaven Funerals Stapylton, Lovell Meizer Funerals, Pinegrove Funerals, Paul Lahood Funeral Services, InvoCare Australia and Pettigrew Family Funerals have all chosen to join as full members of AFDA. We are very pleased to have them join us and look forward to seeing them at our events as well as networking and training opportunities. We continue to talk with other potential members and educate them of the benefit of being an AFDA Member, particularly at a time when the importance of having the resources for proactive advocacy cannot be understated. The current advocacy work undertaken by the AFDA Executive and in particular President Andrew Pinder, has been time consuming, but effective, and it is an area AFDA needs to continue to further bolster our resources. With that said, and thanks to the increase in our membership and scale, AFDA will be employing a Media and Government Liaison Officer to proactively drive our advocacy work and to assist in forming strong positive relationships with both the media and government. This appointment is particularly important in assisting AFDA to stay across the rapidly moving Coronavirus (COVID-19) which is of concern to all. We will continue to provide updates to our members via eNews and eAlerts as they come to hand.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank CEO David Moger and Marketing and Events Manager Linda Hartstonge from the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ) along with AFDA’s National Events Coordinator Deanne Brown for their hard work in organising and conducting a successful joint conference in Auckland New Zealand. With so many FDANZ and AFDA members in attendance it was a wonderful opportunity to make and renew friendships. A full report with pictures will be in the June Journal.
Congratulations are also in order for Deanne Brown and her partner Nathan Nolan on their recent engagement and impending birth of their first child together.
Along with the news of a Media and Government Liaison Officer commencing soon, and welcoming a new staff member who will fill the 12-month maternity leave position in the AFDA office, I look forward to announcing further new initiatives in the June Journal as well as further infomation on the 2021 AFDA National Convention in Canberra.
