Throughout its history going back to 1957, Diabetes Australia has been a federated organisation and its members have been State and Territory diabetes organisations, later joined by Health Professional Organisations and Research Organisations.

Recently, the Member Organisations of Diabetes Australia voted unanimously to change the Constitution of Diabetes Australia to enable Member Organisations to merge and unify with Diabetes Australia.

Importantly, the Member Organisations can choose if, and when, they will merge and unify with Diabetes Australia – and this will be through the individual members of those organisations voting on whether to unify or not. A Member Organisation may choose not to merge and may remain a Member Organisation.

The objective is to create a larger, national community for diabetes with a stronger voice to advocate for affordable diabetes care, new technologies, more research, and enhanced diabetes services from all levels of government.

A more unified national organisation will also have a greater opportunity to raise much needed funds to support more diabetes research, diabetes services and advocacy.

The National Health Professional organisations (the Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association) may also merge but retain their names and activities to continue the power of combined consumer and health professional advocacy and activity. The benefits of this includes alignment on policy and advocacy issues; consistency and collaboration across all diabetes organisations; and a powerful voice to enhance diabetes research, management and education services and make a real difference to people living with diabetes and their families.

The potential unification will be a staged process over the coming months and years. We will provide regular updates as we work towards a more unified, successful future so that we may best support people living with diabetes, their families/supporters and diabetes health professionals.