The State Government’s role in regional Western Australia was recognised in Perth this week when two of the year’s StateWest Achievement Awards were won by public sector employees working in fields that service predominantly regional areas.
The State Government’s role in regional Western Australia was recognised in Perth this week when two of the year’s StateWest Achievement Awards were won by public sector employees working in fields that service predominantly regional areas.
Agriculture Western Australia senior technical officer Peter Mangano and Office of Native Title executive director Gary Hamley won two of the four categories recognised in the annual awards.
Tourism WA won in the group category, while Department for Community Development communi-cations officer Lisa Rowston was recognised in the marketing excellence category.
In all, 46 entries were received across the four categories for the awards, which are presented each year by StateWest Credit Society in recognition of public sector employees and their organisations for outstanding service to the community.
Mr Mangano was recognised for his role as editor of information bulletin PestFax, which is written by and for growers, agronomists, and other industry experts about the presence and prevalence of pests and diseases in the state’s agriculture sector.
The Department of Agriculture and the judges also believed the fact that PestFax was now in its 10th year represented a significant milestone.
The weekly bulletin is sent via email to more than 1,600 subscribers around WA, up from 200 when if first started a decade ago.
Mr Mangano was deemed to have been significantly responsible for the bulletin’s success, with the publication gaining a reputation for providing the best available diagnostic and control methods to industry.
A key success of the program has been the response by departmental research officers, who are responding tactically to industry needs for information and feedback.
And because of the bulletin’s age, entomologists and pathologists will be able to use the information as a forecasting tool, with 10 years of data tracing the movements of pests and diseases forming a map and time-line of outbreaks.
But Mr Mangano’s success goes beyond PestFax. He is also responsible for the development of a two-day insect training course as part of Muresk College’s post graduate program, and the compilation of a 160-page booklet titled Crop Insects: the Ute Guide, Western Grain Belt Edition.
Staff at the Office of Native Title nominated their executive director, Gary Hamley, for a StateWest award not for one achievement in particular, but rather for a range of improvements he has made to the office since joining the team 12 months ago.
Among these were: increasing staff and resources; ensuring representation at all Native Title mediation meetings; regional case management conferences; and Federal Court Directions hearings.
The office staff said these improvements had helped facilitate the resolution of six Native Title applications compared with one in the previous reporting year.
“In addition, 27 Native Title applications are now under active management by the office, an increase of over 400 per cent,” the nomination read. “It is anticipated that up to 13 of these will be determined in the coming year.”
Developing settlement guidelines, helping create a post-graduate qualification in cultural heritage and Native Title and increasing the availa-bility of educational information were also among Mr Hamley’s achievements outlined in the nomination.
Having been in the top job for one year, Mr Hamley developed a proposal for the establishment of a $40 million Native Title Land & Equity Fund to assist Native Title holders and claimants, the first of its kind in Australia.
However, it was the testimonials of several external stakeholders that outlined the difficulties of Mr Ham-ley’s job and the obvious improvement since he had joined the office.
“Native title is a unique and intricate area of law and public policy, with vast implications for race-relations, reconciliation, resource development, and land use and that crosses cultures, government and private sectors and professional disciplines,” one comment read.
“When Gary commenced his current role, he inherited a department with low morale, in the newspapers for its shocking staff turnover and deeply unpopular with many stakeholders. Gary has emphatically turned the situation around. It has been a stunning performance in just over a year.
“Under the leadership of Gary, the ONT is now seen as the national benchmark for the administration of Native Title.”
The awards were announced at a special presentation ceremony held this week at His Majesty’s Theatre after deliberations by the five-member panel of judges.
