Mayoral Minutes

Today we are two-thirds through our first year of the new Council and the enthusiasm and commitment of our current group has not waned. In fact, it has continued to strengthen. I attended a meeting yesterday morning that was a case in point. One of our new Councillors, Bill Kelly, had knowledge of a housing scheme that he believed could be deliver benefits to Dubbo. To his credit, he performed the research, spoke to several stakeholders, then brought his ideas forward to fellow Councillors and our Economic Development Branch. Yesterday's meeting, attended by more than 40 people in the Dubbo building industry, was a direct result of the enthusiasm and commitment from one Councillor. If you missed yesterday’s meeting and would like more information on the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), contact Council's Manager Economic Development Dirk Dowling. Read More...

As the holiday season winds up and industry gets back into full-swing, it is a good time to start thinking about what lies ahead for Dubbo in 2013. In recent columns I have made mention of a few of the highlights of 2012 and it is amazing to see what can be achieved in just a year. I am sure 2013 will be no different. Read More...

Conference. For some people the word itself conjures up images of cocktails, late nights and golf. The reality is that employers expect to see a reasonable return on investment from any expenditure and conferences are no different. People attend conferences to increase their knowledge of a particular topic to benefit their employer. Sometimes that increase in knowledge will come from listening to a presentation and sometimes it will come from networking with people in a similar field. Apart from gaining knowledge from colleagues in the same industry, these networks can be beneficial if you need to draw on a person's expertise at a later date. While the direct financial benefits to an organisation may not be seen the day after an employee returns from a conference, if they attend with eyes and ears open, the benefits will undoubtedly be there.
One case where you will see direct economic benefits in relation to a conferenc Read More...

I attended a Youth Council Economic Development workshop last week which was attended by mostly Gen Z people. Economic Development Manager Dirk Dowling had the leaders of tomorrow start with a simple SWOT on Dubbo. Without any prompting, this group of Internet Generation individuals started listing out the various strengths. The list seemed to go on and it opened my eyes to some great facets of Dubbo that I hadn’t realised were important to our youth. When it came to the weaknesses and threats, the list seemed surprisingly small. In fact, the strengths to weaknesses ratio for Dubbo was over three to one. I was most impressed with the pride shown in Dubbo and just how positive these individuals were about our City's future. Read More...

The first significant motion I researched and brought to Dubbo City Council was our current Local Purchasing Policy. That Policy was approved by Council on 28 February 2005 which gives local suppliers a two per cent price advantage over out-of-town companies. Common sense dictated that buying locally made sense but I needed to present solid facts to Council to enact policy change. I spent some nine months researching the impacts of local purchasing and convincing my fellow Councillors that this policy would have positive impacts on Dubbo. The research I did then still applies today. Read More...

I am sure most of you would have heard news that a $40 million development application has been lodged for the development of a shopping centre in Dubbo’s CBD. The DA includes commercial premises (offices and retail), shop-top housing, serviced apartments, motel accommodation and car parking. This type of development proposal shows continued confidence in our City and it will significantly strengthen our CBD. As you can appreciate, a DA of this scale and complexity will undoubtedly involve a number of other agencies, stakeholders, a review by the community - including a public exhibition period - and may even require additional information from the applicant, so the total timeframe for processing may take up to five months. But the important thing is that the DA – which will ultimately be determined by the Joint Regional Planning Panel - has been lodged and assessment by Council can now start and our staff will endeavour to assess this application in the shortest possible timeframe. Read More...