‘Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and yet we cannot build a community-based health system.’

These were the words of one of this country’s leading health policy experts when we sat down to discuss the current state of our health sector.

The taskforce was established to provide a vision for the primary care system and to recommend top-priority improvements to address the problems within it.

And it’s not a moment too soon.

Most of us acknowledge that the current system is on the precipice and that the informal title of ‘world’s best health system’ feels less genuine by the day.

A new year usually prompts us to consider our priorities and set new personal and professional goals.

We start this year with some new faces on the leadership team.

In the last issue of InMotion, we likened government relations to mountain hiking.

This month, we look at policy and advocacy as funambulism—our work is a constant act of balancing the responsive and the proactive.

This award, administered by the Associations Forum, recognises excellence in the associations sector.

After taking that look in the rear-vision mirror and learning from where we have been, it is time for us all to look forward and focus our attention on the direction we want the profession to go in and what we need to do to get there.

The APA’s goal has always been that all Australians will have equal access to quality physiotherapy.

Some decades ago, those within the LGBTQIA+ community began using ‘LGB’ as a shorthand way to describe diverse sexual identities and gender expressions.

An APA member recently wrote to me asking how they can advocate on behalf of the profession.

They wanted to do something to promote physiotherapy and were seeking advice on the best ways to achieve this.

Having members be this engaged and dedicated is most certainly welcomed.

We have over 31,000 ‘advocates’ thanks to the way you all promote the profession in the work you do every day.

The APA lobbied the Physiotherapy Board of Australia to recognise this right as one of several new initiatives designed to strengthen the rewards and recognition of being a Fellow.

In so many ways, this is long overdue. Specialisation is a hugely significant achievement.