I was honoured to be elected Chairman of the company in July this year. nib is a wonderful organisation with a long and proud history of innovation, growth and achievement since its inception in 1952. Together with my fellow directors, our Executive Management team and everyone at nib, I’m excited to be part of the company’s continued progress and expansion. There is a “buzz” across the company that augers well for the future.

Financial year 2021 (FY21) will of course be remembered as a year in which we all felt the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Absent the kind of devastating armed conflicts of the first half of last century, for most of us it is easily the most significant global event in our lifetimes. While its implications for the nib Group and businesses generally are too vast to cover here, I will attempt to provide some insight into what the Group has had to deal with and how.

I should highlight that, from the pandemic’s outset, our focus has been, and continues to be, on the health and wellbeing of our members, travellers, communities and employees. To date nib has provided $45 million in COVID-19 support in the form of deferred premium increases, waived or suspended premiums, additional COVID-19 related coverage and multiple community donations. In addition, as announced with our FY21 results, we will return $15 million of claims savings to eligible members as part of our ongoing member and community support package. We anticipate further support while ever the pandemic persists.

Importantly, the dire conditions didn’t prevent us from meeting the healthcare needs of our members. In FY21, we funded 378,900 hospital claims and over 3.9 million dental, optical, and other ancillary claims across the Group with a total value of $2.0 billion compared to $1.9 billion in FY20. The pandemic certainly didn’t slow the momentum we’re building towards making the value proposition for members as much about their good health and wellbeing as it is their financial protection. Indeed, FY21 marked a milestone in the transformation of nib into a good health focussed business. Mark covers this in a little more detail in his Managing Director’s report.

Group commercial and financial performance was strong despite some parts of the business taking strain under the pressures of the pandemic and restrictions on international travel. Mark makes mention of the headline financial numbers and the Annual Report has further details. Shareholders, I believe, can take confidence from the resilience shown across the Group and our expectation of a positive outlook for private health insurance, and that as the pandemic passes, those affected businesses will recover quickly.

In the fullness of time, I think FY21 will also mark a point when our social and environmental responsibilities to the communities we serve became all the more poignant. Already we are very committed to the well established principles of sustainability, and have much to show for our efforts including our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), our Diversity and Inclusion Plan and over $2.7 million in funding for numerous community health initiatives, including through our hard working nib foundation.

Yet the potential for us having the greatest impact on the health of our society lies ahead in the form of more deliberate and precise population health management. We intend to play a more active role in improving community health outcomes and redressing terrible gaps in care, especially between indigenous and non-indigenous people, whilst always maintaining the primacy of our members’ choice of healthcare provider.

Overall, the nib Group is in very good shape. We continue to grow with increased profitability, we are well capitalised and there is no shortage of opportunity ahead. Your Board declared a final dividend of 14.0 cents per share, fully franked, bringing the full year dividend to 24.0 cents per share.

I want to acknowledge and farewell our long-serving Chairman, Steve Crane, who retired from the Board in July 2021. Steve made an extraordinary contribution to the company over the past decade and will be very much missed. I also welcome Peter Harmer as a new independent Non-Executive Director. Peter brings over 40 years’ experience in the Australian and international insurance and financial sectors.

Finally, my sincere thanks and gratitude to our people, from our employees on the frontline, our team leaders, to our Executive Management team and my fellow Board colleagues for all their hard work and persistence in such an extraordinary year. nib is built on its people and we are fortunate to have a truly great team.

David Gordon
Chairman