Two Orange City Council projects have won top prizes in the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards.
Presented last night in Sydney, the Council has won awards for:
- a five year project negotiating with the Crown Lands Department and the Orange Local Aboriginal Lands Council (OLALC) which saw the NSW Government commit to handing 86 hectares of local land to OLALC
- the development of a new system to keep staff and contractors safe from workplace accidents
AWARD: Pictured at the Local Government Excellence Awards are (l. to r.) Deputy Mayor Gerald Power, OCC People & Culture Manager Jen Sharp, Mayor Jason Hamling and OCC Communication & Engagement Manager Nick Redmond
The NSW Local Government Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding achievements and promote innovation and continuous improvement in NSW local government. Orange City Council was a finalist in three award categories last night:
- First Nations Community Partnerships
- Risk Management
- Asset & Infrastructure
Attending the awards presentation in Sydney last night, Mayor Jason Hamling says he is delighted that the Council won two categories and finished finalists in two others.
"It comes as no surprise that the quality of work of our Council staff is of the highest quality, but it's an encouragement when that work is recognised and measured against councils across the state," Cr Jason Hamling said. "Both winning projects show how our Council is willing to push the envelope to create new approaches and deliver better value for lour local community."
"Rather than dealing with a string of one-by-one land claims, it was the first time anywhere in the state that the NSW Government had agreed to sit down together and sort out a way to transfer land it no longer needed to both the local Lands Council and local government. On face value that sounds like a simple task, but the reality was months of negotiation, and a number of Council staff played a key role in bringing it all together."
CEO of the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council Annette Steele has congratulated the Council.
"Council staff did a brilliant job to stick with this negotiation process over many months. It showed the way forward for other local councils and Aboriginal Land Councils across the state to work together to achieve great outcomes for their respective communities. This one agreement is going to benefit the local Aboriginal community for generations to come," Annette Steele said.
The other category win recognised the efforts of Council's Work Health & Safety (WHS) team in creating a new state-of-the-art framework to streamline WHS risk management for staff and contractors.
The new Risk Profiling Matrix, which was established after extensive research, assigns WHS risk profiles to each work area of the organisation, enabling Council to define the frequency in which routine WHS duties must be performed at low, moderate and high-risk work sites.
The Risk Profiling Matrix played a major role in Council's attainment of ISO45001 accreditation, the international standard for health and safety at work, which it achieved in August, 2022.
Orange City Council was also a finalist in two other categories for:
- the recently completed Orange Regional Gallery Extension Project which included a new 270 square metre contemporary gallery with innovative lighting design, a 73-seat gallery theatre, a new state-of-the art storage and conservation area and refurbishments to existing spaces.
- the Orange Regional Museum's exhibition 'Mulaa Giilang: Wiradjuri stories of the night sky' which has already been awarded Best Exhibition at the 2023 National Trust awards
