I'm pleased to support the motion to endorse the release of the draft Smart City Strategy for public exhibition and feedback from 2 April to 23 April.

Along with residents and business owners, I encourage all from our community networks across the City to review and comment on the strategy before Council considers a final version in June.

Madam Mayor, it gives me great pleasure to be embarking on this journey to transform Wyndham into a smart and connected city.

As technology innovation permeates our everyday lives and changing the way we live, it’s important we make the most of these opportunities.

Our work in the smart city space is gaining significant traction. In 2017, we won the highest honour in the sector, the National Award for Local Government, and twice secured competitive Smart Cities and Suburbs Grant Funding - one of only three councils across Australia. 

We are proud of our achievements and our progress as a modern, smart city however there’s much more work to do. 

In line with our 2040 Vision, the Smart City Strategy is an enabler to operationalise council key priorities through promoting innovation, leveraging new technology and welcoming collaborative partnerships to address our urban challenges.

In addition, advances in technology and data analysis provide us with the tools to better understand and manage the functioning of our city and to forward plan and deliver services more effectively. 

The strategy is underpinned by the voice of our community.  The contributions of more than 800 people have guided our smart city agenda and long-term aspirational goals. The strategy will benefit our community by:

• Maximising the skills and knowledge of our citizens.
• Promote and encourage innovation and creativity.
• Help to address the future of transport across the city.
• Seeking stronger environmental outcomes through the use of technology.
• Nurture and support our unique identity.

I specifically want to call out the key priority areas, I support all of these and note that these key themes and priorities have been derived from the voice of our community.

I also want to thank all staffs involved in this work, this work has been widely supported across departments within the council. I want to thank all my fellow councillors support. Thank our CEO Kelly Grigsby, the senior executive team, and last, but most importantly, the Smart City Office lead by Dr Adam Mowlam for their commendable background work that has gone into preparing this draft strategy. There have been many hours spent to ensure that this draft strategy delivers on its commitments and acts as an enabler of other organisational strategic priorities.

I'm looking forward to working with staff and our partners on delivering this strategy and value to our community.

Thank you.