INDUSTRY NEWS

Fitness Australia – News From Down Under

Lauretta Stace, Chief Executive of Fitness Australia, writes about the organisation’s plans for the year ahead:

Fitness Australia’s key priorities for 2013 are professionalism and enhancement of industry standards and reputation. We want to build the capacity of the professional workforce and create more sustainable career path options for those with the desire, skill and professional manner to work collaboratively with the health sector, to tackle inactivity and to make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of the community.

We all know that the pursuit of fitness also comes with risk. High standards of client care and safety are an integral part of Fitness Australia’s commitment to enhancing the reputation and standard of the health and fitness industry. We have partnered with Bond University on the Sunshine Coast to support research into risk management and injury prevention in the fitness industry. Several important papers have already been written to describe the legal framework in which the industry operates. The industry research phase will answer some important questions about risk management and

provide the industry both within Australia and overseas with the knowledge and tools to strive for best practice and reduce the risk of client injury.

We also held a special one-day event recently that brought industry leaders together to focus on how the sector can

continue to build effective relationships with government, influence decision-making through lobbying and advocacy and ultimately, to achieve policy reform in key areas such as recognition of a National Register of Exercise Professionals and Fringe Benefit Tax reform. www.fitness.org.au

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The REPs Journal 2013;26(January):8-9