- So where do we begin, Laura?

- Oh, gee, Michael. It's been such a huge year, so many challenges, but so many achievements as well.

- It's been a massive year given that we've been going through a pandemic for 18 months, and I can't thank staff enough for all of their efforts.

- You know what? We've supported thousands of people with disability or mental health conditions. We've supported their families. We've grown our programs from Queensland, ACT, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. It's been incredible and I can't thank the staff enough for the care and dedication they've shown to the people that they serve in the community.

- And it's amazing that in the middle of a pandemic we've grown, and that is people voting with their feet and saying that they want what Wellways has to offer. I think we have a reputation for quality care, person-centered care, and that's what we've been delivering in the most difficult of times.

- Do you know we opened new programs in the middle of a lockdown? So we've been growing while keeping a focus on quality, which is really important.

- It's just been amazing to think that all of that has occurred in these difficult times.

- We have had to make some difficult decisions. And one of those decisions is really focusing our consumer directed services, focusing it to where we can offer best value, and that is providing specialized care to people in the community.

- And that's been a difficult decision. And what I think has been terrific is that we've ensured a transition. We've made sure that people have gone to safe hands and no one has moved until we've been absolutely satisfied that they'll continue to get the care that they need.

- We have had other challenges too, of course, and our staff underpayment issue came as a real shock and has been a big challenge for us.

- It was a disappointment, but we did really the only thing we could do, which is to advise staff as soon as we could, report ourselves to the authorities, and then take all the necessary steps to make sure that we have remediated in the best way we could. That's a challenge at any time, but we want to be as sort of transparent and open and honest as we possibly can be.

- And I appreciate all the messages I've had from staff thanking us for our honesty.

- And the good news is as a consequence, partly, we've invested in IT and systems and processes for Wellways to make sure that that can't happen again.

- But also we've invested in new staff and the People and Culture team, particularly in organizational development role, to support the leaders in our organization, to build their skills and confidence and support them to do their job well, to support our people delivering frontline services.

- It's certainly gonna help us do things much better.

- Yeah, absolutely. So we've done a lot of work to set us up for the future, and the future is really exciting, particularly as a consequence of the Royal Commission into Mental Health in Victoria.

- Laura and I have also been working on an expert advisory group for the minister in also helping to develop the new Mental Health Act. So we're contributing in so many different ways and positioning ourselves to be there when the sorts of skills and services that Wellways offers are going to be needed for all of those community supports that the Royal Commission has called for.

- And I guess most of all, we're doing that because we're committed to the lives and the wellbeing of people in the community. We want a better mental health system that delivers better support to people in Victoria and ultimately across the country. But gee, hasn't the Board changed in the last year?

- Well, we've got a substantially new Board with a number of people with great skills, great commitment, great experience in a lot of the areas where we work. And as a team, I think we're gonna be able to do things bigger and better as we go forward.

- 2020-2021. It's been an amazing year, one that we could never have predicted, but we've achieved so much. Thank you.