President’s Message – Summer 2022

In October 2021, SCA Australasia celebrated its tenth anniversary as the leading organisation representing the innovative and dynamic industry serving and upholding the interests of the growing millions of Australians living in strata.

It is an incredible honour to have been elected as Australasian President of SCA, alongside our newly elected Vice-President, Joshua Baldwin at the same time we have commemorated this milestone. I have worked hard in my capacity as SCA NSW President, and I will continue to tirelessly work to advocacy for the strata industry at an Australasian level in this new role. I also would like to thank our immediate past President Andrew Chambers for his hard work in this role, and to acknowledge the many achievements of his tenure. I’d also like to thank our CEO, Alisha Fisher for her steadfast leadership throughout 2021, as well as the hard work of the SCA team and members.

SCA National, as well as each SCA State and Territory branch has worked incredibly hard at overcoming the obstacles placed before our sector by COVID-19. In New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT specifically, lockdowns, vaccinations and isolation presented challenges unique to strata, where common and private areas provide. I’m delighted to say we weathered the storm admirably, and we’ve come out the other side with closer relationships not only with state and federal government representatives, but with the queries and concerns of our members.

September 2021 saw the release of A data-driven holistic understanding of strata insurance in Australia and New Zealand, the first of its kind report commissioned by SCA and written by Dr Nicole Johnston at Deakin Business School, examining the affordability and availability of strata insurance across jurisdictions, as well as the value of the strata management industry in providing insurance services for consumers.

Those interactions have laid a formidable bedrock as we head into a federal election year, with a Budget to be delivered by the end of March and an election between now and May. The Northern Australia Reinsurance Pool and strata title resilience pilot scheme again will feature heavily as part of our advocacy, and as you can read in depth in our feature article in this edition, so too will a push for greater sustainability measures in strata and a more coordinated and targeted approach to reducing building defects.

I very much look forward to working alongside Joshua, Alisha, and the rest of the SCA team at the national level and across the state and territory divisions and chapters throughout 2022 and beyond, particularly as federal and state elections both approach this year, and the scope of our mission looks set to grow even further.

In 2022, the focus of SCA will be to continue to drive professionalism in the industry, advocate on our most important issues to those who can enact change and serve our members through education, training and worthwhile events.