ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY
during this year’ s National Economic Development Gala Dinner and Awards Presentation, held on Thursday, October 12 at the historic St Patrick’ s Hall in Ballarat. We hope you agree that the following synopses of entries illustrate the high quality of economic development work being undertaken across the country.
CHAIR’ S REPORT
Economic Development Australia( EDA) is celebrating many milestones in 2017. This year marks the 10th anniversary of EDA as the peak national body for economic development practitioners, strengthening and promoting economic development through state and national events, professional development, advocacy and member support.
We also recently welcomed the new Executive Officer, Jacqueline Brinkman to the EDA team. Jacqueline will work closely with the National Board and the State Practitioner Networks across Australia to strengthen the organisation for the benefit of all members. Ms Brinkman has worked in industry development across a range of sectors including the marine, arts, tourism and aviation industries. She has a strong marketing and communications background and her advocacy and lobbying work has resulted in positive regulatory and legislative change at a local, state and federal level. The EDA Board is very much looking forward to her input and enthusiasm in realising the potential for EDA and maximising benefits for our members.
The recent National Economic Development Conference in Ballarat was a great opportunity to reflect on EDA’ s evolution over the last 10 years, the organisation’ s achievements as well as the challenges shared with many other membership-based networks operating in an increasingly disruptive environment. EDA is committed to implementing innovative strategies to continue to grow and provide strong support and advocacy for Australia’ s economic development practitioner community.
This special edition of the EDA journal, features the 2017 finalists and winners of the EDA Awards for Excellence. Winners and finalists were announced
We look forward to showcasing some of the awardwinning case studies in more detail throughout the year. These case studies illustrate leadership and provide evidence of a changing narrative and perception of the relationship between government and its communities; namely the role of government as commissioners of public value as opposed to more standard providers of services. Within this environment, for economic development practitioners, there is the continual challenge of meeting the rising expectations of service delivery from our taxpayers and our communities.
Economic Development in general – and the initiatives described in the award submissions-provide a lens through which we can illustrate public value leadership occurring in communities throughout Australia. Economic Development is now deeply embedded in the leadership of state and city-wide growth strategies and community capacity building. The National Economic Development Award submissions provide compelling evidence of where this is occurring throughout Australia.
Also in this edition, we feature an article provided by Lee Pugalis, Professor of Urban Studies at the Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney. Entitled,“ Local government and economic development interpretations: enabling and constraining functions”, the article draws upon recent research examining the role of local government in local and regional economic development( Pugalis & Tan, 2017).
Also included in this journal is a paper provided by Thomas Devitt, an Economist with Geografia. The article entitled,“ From Resources to Tourism” sheds light on some successful examples of communities transitioning form the resources sector.
As always, I would like to extend my sincere thanks and great appreciation to each of the current EDA directors for investing their valuable time, significant effort, good will and support.
To all our members, thank you for your continuing support and we look forward to working with you as we strengthen EDA’ s position as the peak national body for economic development practitioners.
Mark Holdsworth ACEcD National Chair, Economic Development Australia
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