With its rural and regional advocacy increasingly sought after for government inquiries and reviews, the Country Mayors Association of New South Wales (CMA) has announced the establishment of a new Policy Advisor role.
CMA Chairman and Temora Shire Mayor, Rick Firman, said that CMA has engaged Julie Briggs through her firm, JBMS Consulting, to provide policy advisor services.
“The firm is a regionally-based management consultancy located in Wagga Wagga,” Mayor Firman said.
“Ms Briggs is a lawyer by profession and has over 30 years of experience with local government matters.”
Ms Briggs said that she is excited to join the CMA in the new Policy Advisor role.
“The CMA is a strong and consequential voice for rural, remote and regional communities across New South Wales and the work they do is vitally important,” Ms Briggs said.
“I am really looking forward to using the skills and knowledge I have developed in my many years as CEO of the Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils (REROC) to assist the CMA to achieve its representative agenda.”
Mayor Firman said that as Chairman of REROC, he has worked closely with Ms Briggs.
“When it comes to writing representative, data-driven submissions, she is the best I have encountered.
“The increasing workload of the CMA is something we are proud of. We are bipartisan and have maintained a positive working relationship with the New South Wales and Federal Governments. So, when they seek our input through an invitation to submit to an inquiry, it is welcome, however we must have the resources to gather insights from our members and articulate them in an authoritative document.
“When the CMA contributes a submission to a government inquiry, there’s a lot of work involved. Our Secretariat, Gary Fry, was spread too thin, when he also managed the CMA and organised its functions in 2024.
“Ms Briggs will hit the ground running, with the report from the Review of the NSW Reconstruction Authority Act (among others) currently in her sights.
“We extend a warm CMA welcome to Ms Briggs and look forward to working with her.”
