July has been a month of taking stock, looking ahead, and continuing to build the foundations that will support FCVic and the financial counselling sector into the future.
Last week, we held our mid-year planning day, which was an important opportunity to step back from the immediate demands of the work and reflect on how we are tracking across the year. The first half of 2026 has brought significant change and development across FCVic and the broader sector. We have progressed major projects, responded to important policy developments, advanced our governance review, continued our digital transformation work, and supported members through ongoing discussions about the SCHADS Award, disaster recovery, and workforce pressures.
The planning day gave us space to situate all of that work, assess what has shifted, and ensure we remain focused on the priorities that will make the greatest difference for members and the communities they support. I left the day feeling proud of what the team has achieved, clear-eyed about the challenges ahead, and optimistic about what we can continue to build together in the second half of the year.
This week, I also spent a couple of days at the Associations Forum National Conference in Geelong, held at the impressive new Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention Centre. It was a useful opportunity to step outside the day-to-day and hear how other associations are thinking about leadership, governance, diversification, systems change, and member engagement. I came away with plenty of ideas and perspectives that will help us keep refining the work we do at FCVic.
A number of major pieces of work have continued to progress during July. Our governance review is entering an important stage, with a revised draft Constitution moving closer to being shared with members. This work is about more than updating a document. It is about ensuring FCVic has governance arrangements that reflect who we are today, protect members’ rights, and support the organisation for the years ahead.
Our Digital Transformation Roadmap Project has also continued to gain momentum, with work progressing on sector systems, AI use cases, and an AI ethics framework. Increasingly, I see this project as critical sector infrastructure, helping financial counselling services adapt to changing technology while remaining grounded in good practice, ethical decision-making, and strong client outcomes.
Advocacy has remained equally busy. Throughout July, we continued working with our peak body colleagues nationally on the SCHADS Award response and broader workforce issues. We also contributed to important consumer and social policy work, including submissions relating to insurance, disability inclusion, and violence prevention. These opportunities matter because they bring the expertise of financial counsellors, and the real experiences of people in financial hardship, into the places where decisions are made.
As we move into August, there is also growing excitement and anticipation for our Parliamentary event from 10 to 14 August. This will be a significant opportunity to bring the stories, expertise, and impact of financial counselling directly into Parliament, and to help decision-makers better understand the challenges facing Victorians experiencing financial hardship.
I am deeply grateful for the support and participation of so many agencies and practitioners. The generosity of the sector has been extraordinary, with people contributing time, insights, case studies, and energy to help make this work meaningful.
I am also enormously grateful to the FCVic team. An event like this takes a huge amount of work behind the scenes, from logistics and stakeholder engagement through to communications, briefing materials, coordination, and careful thinking about how we represent the sector well. The team’s professionalism, creativity, and persistence have been remarkable.
A particular note of thanks this month to Georgina Molloy, who has accepted a new leadership opportunity at Westjustice. Georgina has made an enormous contribution to FCVic across major projects, including the Rank the Energy Retailer work, the Workforce Development Project, the Digital Transformation Roadmap, and the Governance Review. We will miss her skill, steadiness, and warmth, and we wish her every success in the new role.
Looking across July, the theme I keep returning to is investment in the future: governance, digital transformation, workforce advocacy, disaster recovery, member engagement, and our public voice. Much of this work is about building the infrastructure, relationships, and capability that will support financial counsellors and the people they assist for years to come.
Thank you, as always, for the work you do every day.