A message from our Chief Executive Officer

If there has been one constant the past few years, it has been adversity. If a global pandemic wasn’t enough to test us, we’ve also survived record rainfall, an almost 3-month lockdown of our city, a shutdown of our local airport, 2 devastating inner-city fires, a brief recession and now rapid inflation and interest rates.

Yet through it all, local government has stood tall. In Newcastle, people turned to our Council and our staff to provide facilities and services to help them survive the pandemic, whether it be our walkways, our beaches, our parks or our sporting fields.

As dry as it may sound, this support for our community is only possible through years of prudent financial management at CN. Fortunately – and despite a $10 million stimulus package in August 2021, when it became clear that our city was about to encounter a second and more deadly wave of COVID-19 – we have been able to deliver an operating surplus of $4.6 million, including capital grants and contributions.

The Adopted Budget for 2021/2022 was, in some ways, a more difficult one to deliver than last year’s COVID-19 stimulus budget. Many parts of our city have returned to normal, which means expenses have returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, the impacts of COVID-19 on our community have continued, and supply and cost issues remain.

Despite these challenges, CN continues to employ approximately 1,300 staff, making us one of not just the city’s but the region’s largest employers. We continue to invest in construction of new infrastructure projects at a record level and to improve the liveability of our city. Significant levels of residential and commercial development also continue to unfold across our city, which is critical for the local economy, the local construction industry and local employment, especially among our younger people.

During the last 12 months, $1.85 billion in new development was assessed by CN, with more than 1,650 Development Applications determined in addition to state significant developments. Remarkably, this is an increase of more than 25% on the period immediately before the pandemic struck in early 2020.

Despite the assessment pressures that come with this development activity, CN’s Planning team has remained committed to improving and streamlining the DA pathway for applicants, with the number of DAs pending assessment reduced by 35%, while DA assessment times have also reduced by a third from 60 to 40 days.

In 2020, CN commenced work on a project called the Customer Experience Strategy. It means winning back the trust of our customers, not by saying yes, but by responding quickly and honestly; delivering bad news empathetically; and trying to solve a problem rather than being a part of it. Customer satisfaction has risen by 15% in response to this committed effort by our staff, while the number of complaints has fallen by 15%.

Working with the community is at the heart of what we do. This year, councillors unanimously voted to adopt the new Community Strategic Plan, Newcastle 2040, which provides the basis for the ongoing alignment of CN’s decision-making processes, strategies and activities with the vision of the Newcastle community. Priorities and objectives in Newcastle 2040 focus on 4 key themes: Liveable Newcastle, Sustainable Newcastle, Creative Newcastle and Achieving Together.

Council also adopted CN’s action plan for achieving Newcastle 2040: Delivering Newcastle 2040 and Resourcing Newcastle 2040 – our commitment to our community, action plan and roadmap for how we will implement and resource our community’s vision. In addition, CN has realigned our organisation structure to ensure that these themes form the basis for everything we do.

Everything that was achieved during 2021/2022 was done off the backs of many: our staff, our ratepayers, our community and sporting groups, our volunteers and our councillors. I look forward to building further on the new ways of working that have made us a city able to respond to uncertain times.

Newcastle is a vibrant, character-filled city that has maintained supportive relationships throughout the adversities we have faced. As we move toward Newcastle 2040, the one constant is that our city will continue to grow and develop, while remaining a truly amazing place to call home.

Chief Executive Officer