Chair and Treasurer's Report
CHAIR AND TREASURE’S REPORT
to the
BUSHLAND HEALTH GROUP LIMITED
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
CHAIR’S REPORT
It has been a difficult year due in the main to a couple of events which, as a Company have been beyond our control.
The Manning Valley experienced flooding in May which resulted in severe flooding to levels not previously recorded in European settlement. As a company we had flood waters in 46 of our older Bushland Village independent living residences which caused a mass evacuation at night of the occupants. This evacuation event was handled by our staff and others in a very acceptable manner. These units have never been flood affected before. We also lost a great deal of equipment and three vehicles to the flood waters. The only “bright spot”, so to speak was that we had recently had our insurance replacement values increased to full replacement terms and accordingly the seven-million-dollar damages cost is being fully paid by our insurer.
The other difficulty has been the delay in obtaining overseas staff for our operations. Along with others in our industry we have severe difficulties in recruiting Australian based staff to assist in the aged care industry. To this end we have been using an overseas recruitment company who have been successful in obtaining 30 qualified individuals mainly from the Philippines. The issue is obtaining the 407 training visas. What used to take 4 to 8 weeks for approval now has stretched out to approximately 8 to 10 months with still no approval from Canberra. Without these overseas staff there will be local hospitals occupied with residents requiring aged care services who should be in care of suitable organisations such as ours. Our Board calls on the Federal Government to expedite these visas so we can operate to full capacity and not have empty rooms, as is at the present.
With regards to future developments the Board authorised the purchase of some properties in Taree during the year. These will be used for staff accommodation.
In relation to our 60-acre site in Marie Avenue Taree, to be known as “Manning Rise”, we intend to construct over time 210 supported independent living residences with 19 to be constructed in the first stage. We are a little closer to commencing, with the necessary approvals expected shortly from the NSW Government and Mid Coast Council.
As a company it is pleasing to record an audited profit of $476,184 for the financial year. The Board recognises the efforts of all our staff in obtaining this pleasing result, and particularly the efforts of our CEO and Company Secretary Errol Curran in leading the team. I would like to thank Alaine and the Auditors for the work they do and for signing off on the report.
I wish to record the Board’s thanks to Mrs Margaret Shelton who resigned as a Director in April 2025 after serving as a Director for 27 years. Thank you so much Margaret. Her position has been taken by Mr James Paton. Dr Geoff Fuller will also retire as a Director at the finish of the AGM. Geoff has been a Director for a period of 28 years and his experience as a Board member and his medical knowledge will be sorely missed. Thank you also Geoff.
The Board is continually looking for civic minded citizens who can assist our board with their thoughts.
George Wilson
Chair
TREASURER’S REPORT
I am pleased to present my report for the year ended 30 June 2025.
The profitability for the year reduced this year to $476,184 compared to last year’s profit of $1.836 million. The main reason for this being the requirement to meet the new staffing requirements as outlined in my report last year. This has been achieved mainly with agency staff which, of course, are more expensive than direct employees.
Staffing is still the main factor in achieving positive profit results as the labour market is exceptionally tight in our industry. Although we have been able to recruit staff from overseas the lead time involved in this process is very long – expected staff arrival in April 2025 has been delayed until mid 2026 at this stage. Without the additional staff we are not able to open the beds for the people awaiting places. We continually hear that much of the local hospital is filled with nursing home patients that would be much better cared in our dedicated age care facilities. Sadly all falling on deaf ears within the government. The financial statements show an increase in employee benefits of almost $3 million to a total for the year of $26.3 million.
An expense of $1.02 million has been included in this years profit due to the nuances of accounting standards and increases in our villa resident loan. In short as our property values are increased this creates a future expense in the amount that must be recognised as an expense for future payouts. This figure was only $79,000 in 2024.
As we highlight every year our organisation if fortunate not to have borrowings to support our operations but rather large cash reserves. This is very different to most in our industry. For this year we received almost $2.5 million in interest on investments. Without this revenue stream our loss would have been $2 million.
Our balance sheet is slowly changing to meet the needs of a new workforce model of employees coming from overseas. Taree has a very small supply of rental accommodation and thus it has been necessary for us to purchase residential properties to accommodate these employees. We do receive rent from the employees so it really is just a re-deployment of cash investments into property with similar rates of return.
In recommending this report for adoption I would like to thank my fellow board members and also the staff for being so diligent in yet another challenging year for the company and the industry. Everyone is aware of the difficulties we face but continue to go above and beyond expectations.
Graham Brown OAM
Treasurer