New South Wales

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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Janice Reid VC UWS meets EDA  Director Julianne Christie of Fairfield City Council on Wed 7th May 

Prime Minister Mr Rudd and the Minister for Workforce Participation Mr Brendan O’Connor visited Campbelltown on Wednesday 6th May, Bankstown on Thursday 7th May and Casula on Friday 8th May as part of a tour of south west Sydney suburbs, designed to focus on how to create more jobs in the region. Mr Rudd talked about the global, national and local responses to the global financial crises and the subsequent global recession. He was particularly interested in ideas from the audience regarding how they would use the Jobs and Training compact “to create jobs now and build the infrastructure of the future”.
``Sydney's south west has always had higher levels of unemployment and it's time that we set down some firm ideas to turn that around,'' Mr Rudd said.

Mr Rudd asked representatives from local community groups and services, business leaders and Council representatives to provide specific suggestions of programs and initiatives that could be undertaken to lower unemployment in the area.

Julianne Christie, Director of EDA and Senior Policy Advisor for Economic Development at Fairfield City Council, introduced herself first as an economist, then as a Director of EDA and then as working for the City of Fairfield. In reply to being an economist, Mr Rudd teased “We all have our problems”. He noted EDA on his page of notes for future reference.
Julianne had the opportunity to speak with the Prime Minister about a number of issues facing the Fairfield community. First was the urgent need for English Language, Literacy and Numeracy acquisition for all ages of the Non-English speaking community so that training, skilling and employment activities could be undertaken.
Transport was also an issue raised, given that many residents of Fairfield City do not own a private vehicle. Mr Rudd had spoken about the agreement with major banks giving retrenched workers a car loan repayment “holiday” and noted the difficulties of seeking retraining or work without a car. Julianne noted that a repayment holiday was appropriate for communities that had high car ownership – however as is the case for Fairfield, many households do not own a vehicle and relied on scant public transport that did not adequately cover the LGA for training and job seeking activities.

Julianne’s support was also given to a previous speakers request for work experience opportunities for job seekers, and the need for an appropriate insurance scheme to cover the job seeker and work experience provider.
Finally, Julianne was able to share recent business survey results that showed a very poor awareness and usage rate by local business of any State and Federal business assistance programs. The Prime Minister immediately made a KPI for the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for business assistance programs and asked for ideas on better marketing to be forwarded.
In a later conversation with Brendan O’Connor, EDA was discussed and the input and feedback services we could provide were outlined. Mr O’Connor recognised EDA and noted that it was a resource he should use in the future.

EDA NSW State Practitioner Network [SPN]

EDA-NSW is the State based Practitioner Network [Chapter] of EDA and has the primary role of focussing on economic development issues and opportunities within the state of New South Wales. It will be the focus of the new Stae Practitoner Management Committee, which was elected in October 2008, to work closely with the current State Government Ministers and Shadow Ministers to ensure that businesses and regions within NSW remain competitive.

The new Management Committee of EDA-NSW is:

Chair: Stephen Joyce - Economic Development Manager, Griffith City Council
Vice Chair: Mike Thomas - Economic Development Manager, Parramatta City Council
Treasurer: Megan Dixon - Director Corporate Development, Dubbo City Council
Secretary: Graham Humphrys - Business Investment Officer, Bankstown City Council
Committee members:
Kevin Abey - Economic Development Manager, Armidale-Dumaresq City Council
Stephanie Kelly - Economic Development Manager, Canada Bay City Council
Fiona Mann - Strategic Planner, Hawkesbury City Council
Margaret Nicholls - Economic Development Manager, Queanbeyan City Council
Chris Ryan - Economic Development Manager, Greater Taree City Council
Richard Walker - Executive Director EDA

The new Management Committee is a great representation of our economic development professionals from across the state and will work hard to represent the interests of our members to State and Federal Government as well as provide opportunities for learning forums and networking events.

Should you wish to make any suggestions to the board of EDA-NSW please don’t hesitate to call:

EDA NSW Chair, Stephen Joyce
Economic Development Manager, Griffith City Council
PO Box 485, GRIFFITH NSW 2680
T: (02) 6962 8174
M: 0439 726 716
F: (02) 6962 7161
stephen.joyce@griffith.nsw.gov.au
 
For other information on NSW activities use the links below:

News
Strategic Plan as of Nov 08
Meetings
Upcoming Events
Business Improvement Districts