NSW Premier Chris Minns has announced the appointment of the Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Janelle Saffin experienced the devastation of a natural disaster when unprecedented floods hit the Northern Rivers in early 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Member for Lismore has remained a fierce advocate for her community\u2019s recovery since the beginning and will have an even stronger voice \u2013 for the Northern Rivers and communities across NSW in this role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This announcement represents another stage in the new government\u2019s reset of the Northern Rivers disaster recovery response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Premier Minns met with local mayors and MPs from the Northern Rivers in June to directly listen to their concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully, and the Minister for Emergency Services, Jihad Dib, visited the region together last month to further hear community feedback and to see first-hand how reconstruction programs are progressing and what more needed to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NSW Reconstruction Authority will continue under its current arrangements reporting to the Minister for Planning and the Minister for Emergency Services, now supported by the new Parliamentary Secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further strengthening the government\u2019s focus on natural disaster preparedness and recovery, Premier Minns announced NSW Reconstruction Authority chief executive officer Simon Draper PSM as the new Secretary of the Premier\u2019s Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Draper\u2019s experience will bolster the Premier\u2019s Department\u2019s whole-of-government disaster response coordination role and the department\u2019s focus on supporting frontline agencies to deliver for communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Draper\u2019s appointment recognises his reputation as one of the state\u2019s most respected and experienced public servants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will commence in his role as Secretary of Premier\u2019s Department on 1 September 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Premier Minns thanked outgoing Acting Secretary Peter Duncan AM who has overseen the establishment of the Cabinet Office and the Premier\u2019s Department since the March election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further work will be undertaken in relation to the recruitment of the Secretary of the Cabinet Office. Deputy Secretary, Policy William Murphy PSM will be Acting Secretary of the Cabinet Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Draper will continue as NSW Reconstruction Authority CEO as the state enters the summer bushfire season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simon Draper has worked in NSW Government for the last decade. He was a Deputy Secretary Economic Policy at the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Secretary of the Department of Industry and was CEO of Infrastructure NSW from 2019 to February 2023. He joined the newly formed NSW Reconstruction Authority as CEO in February 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to joining government, Mr Draper worked in the infrastructure, utility and energy sectors, as CEO of 2 airport companies (Northern Territory Airports and Wellington Airport in New Zealand), CEO of Lumo Energy, and General Manager Commercial at Integral Energy (now Endeavour Energy). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NSW Premier Chris Minns said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSimon Draper is a highly regarded leader in the NSW public sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA leader of Simon\u2019s calibre qualifies him to head both the NSW Premier\u2019s Department and continue his critical stewardship of the state\u2019s disaster recovery and reconstruction efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am thrilled that the Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin has accepted the important role of Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJanelle is a tireless advocate for her community and, having personally faced a devastating natural disaster and its aftermath, I can think of no-one better for this role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery Janelle Saffin said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m honoured to take on the important role of Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen first-hand the devastation that natural disasters such as floods can cause communities such as my local Northern Rivers community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI’ve also experienced first-hand the vital role that a well-coordinated response and recovery, throughout the short-term and long-term stages of disaster recovery can play and the need for continuous improvement in preparedness.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe better prepared, the better response, the better recovery.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incoming Secretary for the Premier\u2019s Department, Simon Draper said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am honoured to be appointed to this role leading the 430,000 outstanding public servants who work hard each day for the people of NSW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have done many things in my career \u2013 I saw the best of what can be achieved when the public service came together during COVID and again in our work in the NSW Reconstruction Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI look forward to supporting the Premier and his priorities and driving effort from the heart of government to improve the lives of the NSW community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NSW Premier Chris Minns has announced the appointment of the Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery. Janelle Saffin experienced the devastation of a natural disaster when unprecedented floods hit the Northern Rivers in early 2022. The Member for Lismore has remained a fierce advocate for her community\u2019s recovery since … Continue reading “Janelle Saffin appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery amid key government appointments”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22487,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22486\/revisions\/22487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}