The FRSA office is in the final throws of preparations for our National Conference being held in Sydney next week. We are very excited to have just under 600 people registered for Conference at the Sheraton Grand Hyde Park who will be gathering to hear from a fantastic line up of Keynote speakers, panellists and concurrent session presenters. I always love the networking and sharing that goes on inside and outside the sessions and of course, always enjoy catching up and putting faces to names. Special thanks to my team here at FRSA, our Conference support crew at Kaigi, the FRSA Board and the Conference Reference Committee. We have all been working hard and we are confident that we will again deliver a Conference that feed heads and hearts!
We hold the Conference in May to coincide with Families Week but we technically haven’t quite made it this year. When we were planning, we were ducking and weaving around published Federal Parliamentary sitting dates. But, our intention is totally committed to acknowledging the importance of celebrating Families Week and we congratulate our our colleagues at Families Australia for their work in championing and promoting the occasion. We know many organisations have been celebrating locally and wish you all a Happy Families Week! The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia is also recognised on 17 May and celebrates the strength, resilience and diversity within LGBTQIA+ communities. A big shout out to the activists, allies and organisations driving change in the FRSA network!
Earlier in the month the Federal Election was held with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leading the ALP to a strong and resounding result delivering a commanding majority in the House of Representatives. With the increased number of Labor seats won we also witnessed some movement in the Ministry with two of those having a direct impact on the Family and Relationship Services Sector. We welcome the newly appointed Attorney-General, the Hon Michelle Rowland, MP; and the Minister for Social Services, the Hon Tanya Plibersek, MP and look forward to working with them into the future. We also take the opportunity to thank the former Attorney General, the Hon. Mark Dreyfus, KC MP and the former Minister for Social Services, the Hon Amanda Rishworth, MP for the significant contribution they each made to the lives of children, families and communities in their respective roles over the past three years.
If you will be joining us in Sydney for FRSA Conference 2025 next week, I look forward to seeing you soon. The FRSA Conference is a recognised professional development opportunity and we build and deliver the conference not just for those who can attend in real time but we also work with presenters to share as many sessions and slides as we can post-Conference. During next week we will also be sharing regular communications and social postings throughout the week so we would love to see your reactions and comments from afar!
