CCBR Business Review

9 Murphy takes the reigns at Council CENTRAL COAST COUNCIL appointed Gary Murphy Chief Executive Officer for a five year term commencing on 2nd July 2018. Mr Murphy is the first CEO of Central Coast Council following the election of councillors in September last year.  Mr Murphy has thirty years’ experience in local government most recently with Lismore City Council where he was General Manager for almost seven years. He started his career as a Graduate Engineer then Senior Engineer with Pietermaritzburg Municipality in South Africa subsequently moving to New Zealand where he was Chief Executive of Buller District Council. Within a month of him taking over con- trol of the third largest council in NSW Mr Murphy addressed the August meeting of the Gosford Erina Chamber of Commerce drawing the largest ever attendance with over 140 business leaders. Dimensions of Central Coast Council Emphasising the size of the Central Coast Council area Mr Murphy used a snapshot slide presentation showing that this Council is the 3rd largest in NSW by population, largest by revenue and 6th largest by rev- enue in Australia. “We are a significant player and deserve to be treated as such by all levels of govern- ment,” he said. “We are no longer a country town, we are influential and we need to recognise that and capitalise on it. We deserve and must demand a seat at the table when decisions are made that affect us.” What are the challenges we face? Mr Murphy said that with youth unemploy- ment at around 18%, more than 25% of the workforce having to travel, mostly to Sydney, each day and 48% of the communi- ty with no qualifications this perfect storm is unacceptable and needs to be addressed. What are the opportunities? “We have employment land available but much of this is unserviced and constrained by various factors. It is an issue that we have to address,” he said. On a positive note Mr Murphy referred the amount of construction underway in Gosford. “For the first time the Central Coast will be included in the Crane Index which is a tangible indicator of economic activ- ity. I can count 10 cranes from my office in Gosford,” he said. Mr Murphy said that with the Regional Leadership Group that comprises the Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast Scot MacDonald, the Coordinator General Lee Shearer, Department of Premier and Cabinet, RMS, Health and Transport for NSW, all relevant agencies are working con- structively and positively together for the future development of the region. Funding opportunity of a lifetime Funding is available in particular from the Snowy Hydro Fund that will see potentially hundreds of millions of dollars heading our way to provide enabling infrastructure to unlock development and job creation. “We are on the cusp of a once in a generation funding opportunity and we must seize it and use it smartly and strategically,” he said. Exciting time for the Central Coast Speaking to CCBR after five months in the job Mr Murphy said, “This is an exciting time to be on the Central Coast. I believe it is about to pop! Why? Because of the Passion of the people, the Opportunity being pre- sented of a once in a generation avalanche of funding and the huge Potential we have. For the first time, the Central Coast has made it onto the RLB crane index  and we have more cranes than Newcastle, Sunshine Coast and Adelaide. We must recognise this potential and seize the opportunity for the Central Coast to take its rightful place not just in NSW but Australia as the best region to create a business and craft a fan- tastic lifestyle.” M A J O R S T O R I E S Central Coast Council CEO Gary Murphy WORTHINGTON MINI GARAGE Cnr Central Coast Highway & Kangoo Road, Kariong. Ph 1300 174 269. worthington.minigarage.com.au WORTHINGTON MINI GARAGE YOUR HOME OF MINI ON THE CENTRAL COAST. The team at Worthington MINI Garage welcomes you to experience the heart of MINI. We take great pride in both our professional sales and quality MINI service. Please feel free to drop in to our showroom and take a MINI for a test drive today. CENTRAL COAST BUSINESS REVIEW YEARBOOK 2018