Our Regional Advocacy
Our statutory mandate outlines our role to provide regional leadership for the Hunter region, and to be an advocate for strategic regional priorities. Each year we engage with our Board of ten democratically elected Mayors and General Managers of our member councils, to identify and rank the Hunter regional advocacy priorities and activities.
Our Shared Priorities 2025-26
Economic transformation to achieve net zero
By 2030, nearly 12,000 direct and indirect jobs will be lost in the Hunter region with the closure of two mines. Over the next couple of decades, 22 further coal mines are due to close. This will impact almost 50,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region (FIJA Issues Paper, 2023). Without urgent intervention, the scale of disruption to communities and the regional economy will be profound.
We want to partner with State and Federal Government to achieve their vision for a net zero future, where we can evolve and diversify the economy, and reuse the mining lands (post mining land use) for new businesses in the Hunter Region to remain the largest regional economy in Australia.
Housing
We appreciate the strong focus of NSW Government to meet the Housing Accord targets. We’ve outlined a number of challenges that need to be addressed to ensure a healthy housing stock and suggestions for how we can work together, including:
- Funding for enabling infrastructure
- Integrated planning
- Balancing biodiversity
- Increasing density
- Cost of construction
- Social and affordable housing
Improving Facilities and Services
Local Governments across Australia are facing mounting financial risks that threaten their long-term sustainability, and impact on their ability to fund critical facilities and services.
Projects to achieve economic growth
Evidence based Business Cases to demonstrate how we can diversify our economy in the Hunter, with a positive return on investment: