I might be talking out of my ‘unus’ but I have always really liked the word ‘union’. It has so many positive connotations. It’s affirmed when people marry, for example (I guess that means divorcees are deunionised).
I have always been a member of whatever union was applicable to me through work and other forums. As a migrant, I guess this was a product of my own enculturation from our place of birth, as Mrs Turner, my father’s adoptive mother who gave us our family name, a woman whom I never knew, was reputedly a fierce unionist.
Like many words, it derives from the Latin ‘unus’, simply meaning ‘one’. But of course, in this derivation, it refers to
one-ness, the joining to create one thing. An action that occurred at every stage of the creation of what we now know as the Australian Medical Association Western Australia.
The AMA (WA) has a very proud and unique union function, especially since it represents doctors in many formal Industrial Agreements, the bargaining of which is the lifeblood of the union body. Not only is the AMA (WA) a proud union, it’s also the peak body for the medical profession, and has a long history and tradition of acting in the best interests of our members, our profession, and ultimately the community we serve.
Broadening our scope, recently the AMA (WA) stood with representatives of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation WA (ANMF WA), and Health Services Union of WA (HSUWA), to respond to an audit of child and adolescent mental health reform. It was a powerful show of collective strength across different areas of the health sector.
Our Psychiatry feature includes one aspect of youth mental health, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We are only too aware of the crisis in adequate diagnosis and oversight of conditions such as ADHD. Our GP feature addresses one of the main causes of the bottlenecks in health service delivery, the vast gap between Medicare rebates and the cost of services they are supposed to cover, as well as the need for far more variation in consultation provision, so that proper conversations and diagnosis can occur at the primary care level to address conditions such as ADHD.
Look, I’m not here to preach, and the word ‘union’ has very different connotations for different people. You may come out of a family with animus towards unions due to their own experiences and enculturation. But when you see the range of work, outcomes and advocacy being achieved at a union such as this Association, for the likes of me, and hopefully a growing number of AMA (WA) members, it’s natural to vote ‘unus’ for unionism.
