Women's work - CWA gets down to serious business

Governor of NSW General David Hurley lavished praise on the organisation for its service to the state, during a speech to officially open its state conference in Tamworth yesterday.

General Hurley, who together with his wife, Linda, is a patron of the CWA, said many advances in rural health, education and childcare would not have been possible without the organisation’s lobbying.

“I congratulate you and thank you for your outstanding voluntary service for this great state,” he said.

“Your organisation, for most of the 20th century, has been the bastion of rural women’s communities.”

The CWA will use the meeting, which runs until Thursday at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre, to formulate policy positions on a range of issues significant to regional communities.

Some of the motions to be voted on include legalising medical marijuana and investigating the health effects of e-cigarettes.

General Hurley said the organisation – the largest women’s group in Australia – remained a strong and significant voice in the statewide policy debate.

However, he said, the CWA was faced with the challenge – a challenge he could relate to as the holder of the oldest public institution in Australia – of remaining relevant.

“The theme of your conference this year – refresh, renew and regenerate – is most pertinent,” he said.

“You are an organisation nearly 100 years old. It’s easy to rest on your laurels, but organisations that rest on their laurels only have one future, and that’s bleak.

“Your challenge is to keep the CWA alive for new generations.”

New England MP Barnaby Joyce, Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson and Tamworth acting mayor Russell Webb were among those in attendance at yesterday’s opening.

Mr Joyce, who has a number of family members who are members of the CWA, said its policy positions still resonated with the highest levels of government.