Regional Capitals Australia (RCA) is pleased to announce our Executive Board for 2021. At the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) Cr Kevin Mack, Mayor, Albury City Council was elected as Chair and Cr Grant Henley, Mayor, City of Busselton as Deputy Chair.
In his first statement as Chair, Cr Kevin Mack has commented that it is important to provide regional capitals across Australia with certainty post recovery from this pandemic.
“That is why we will continue to make strong representation to all sides of the Federal Parliament regarding the opportunities for business investment, population growth and supportive infrastructure investment”, RCA Chair, Cr Mack said.
“We have identified the liveability of our regions as being undersold in the past and with the assistance of government we can secure the future for regional Australia through sound policy development, ongoing investment and regional promotion.”
Cr Mack takes over from Mayor Shane Van Styn, who Chaired RCA over the course of four years and additionally served as the Deputy Chair for two years. Cr Mack outlined his gratitude to the previous Chair, thanking him for his leadership and dedication that has been invaluable to the development of the organisation and our member cities more broadly.
Under Mayor Van Styn’s leadership as Chair, RCA successfully advocated for:
- National Population Policy: regional cities were identified as a key mechanism to manage the sustainable growth of Australia, one of our alliance’s key objectives;
- Regional City Deals: regional deals were created after strong advocacy that smaller cities and regions be included in the government’s ‘deals’ model;
- The Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF): was established as fund to solely invest in the regional infrastructure projects required for our members to grow;
- Local Roads Community Infrastructure Program (LRCI): RCA made the case that this funding should fund both local roads and also local community infrastructure projects.
Other positions confirmed at the AGM are as follows:
Deputy Chair: Cr Grant Henley, City of Busselton
Secretary: Cr Col Murray, Tamworth Regional Council
Treasurer: Cr George Seymour, Fraser Coast Regional Council
Western Australia Regional Representative: Mayor Shane Van Styn, City of Greater Geraldton
New South Wales Regional Representative: Cr Greg Conkey, Wagga Wagga City Council
Victoria Regional Representative: Cr Daniel Moloney, City of Ballarat
Queensland Regional Representative: Cr Neil Fisher (Acting Mayor), Rockhampton Regional Council
Northern Territory Representative: Mayor Damien Ryan, Alice Springs Town Council
In addition to the announcement of the new Executive Board Members for 2021, RCA’s 2020 Annual Statement was tabled and the RCA membership list was confirmed.
The new RCA Executive Board will next meet in February, 2021.