Financial sustainability

Joseph Drew, is adjunct Professor of Economics in Australia and abroad. Professor Drew is one of the leading local government finance scholars in the world today as demonstrated by his vast scholarly record in the best journals in the world. This includes several books published with the best academic publishing houses: (i) Local Government in Australia; (ii) Reforming Local Government; (iii) Saving Local Government, (iv) Natural Law and Government, (v) Selling Public Policy and (vi) Creating Human Value. Moreover, Professor Drew has consulted for a number of governments abroad on projects of national significance, as well as scores of local governments, state governments, and peak bodies in Australia.

Joseph works from his small farm in Moonbi, NSW, and is passionate about helping rural and regional local governments to get the best outcomes for their communities. He has been called on as an expert witness for several state and federal senate inquiries and is frequently in demand by leading media outlets.

Professor Drew is a qualified accountant, economist, natural law philosopher, and accomplished mathematician as demonstrated by a host of national and international academic awards. This skillset is truly unique and means that Joseph has an unrivalled capacity to holistically understand the complex financial challenges facing local government.

Professor Drew has had several adjunct professorships conferred on him at some of the most highly regarded universities in the world which is further testament to his unparalleled skills and the global esteem in which he is held. Indeed, he is also an editor at one of the world’s best academic journals.

He disseminates his work and helpful advice via YouTube at ‘Professor Joseph Drew’.

Qualifications: Doctor of Philosophy (Economics, UNE), Masters of Commerce (Accounting; Griffith University), Diploma Theology, Bachelor of Education (Physical Mathematics), Justice of the Peace (Qual). 

Diogo Ferreira is a mathematician of some note in scholarly circles with a special focus on cutting-edge envelopment analysis (used to empirically quantify efficiency). Indeed, he and Professor Marques are the leading scholars in this field globally and both are based at the leading university in Portugal (which is also one of the best in Europe).

Professor Ferreira has worked with Professor Drew on a number of Australian local government projects and also collaborated with him on academic papers. Diogo is a master of several complex mathematical techniques for analysing corporate and government performance and has demonstrated these in the best scholarly journals in the world in European, South American, and Australian contexts. Professor Ferreira’s participation in projects is thus able to assure that the teams impressive empirical work is indisputably best-in-world standard.

Masato Miyazaki is one of the foremost scholars of local government economics, based in Japan. He is an extremely accomplished empiricist and sits on a number of important regulatory boards in his native country in addition to the board of the Japan Economics Society. Masato is Professor of Economics at Saitama University in Japan where he is actively engaged in teaching and research. Professor Miyazaki is often called upon to make contributions to prominent local government reforms both in Japan and Australia. His empirical prowess in all forms of econometrics makes him a leading scholar in Japan and thus in high demand also abroad. Professor Miyazaki has consulted for a number of local governments in Australia, co-authoring reports with his long-time colleague Professor Drew. Professor Miyazaki is a valued adjunct at the University of Newcastle.

Qualifications: PhD (Economics, Keio University).

Yunji Kim is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University (South Korea) – the top university in Korea and one of the leading public administration programs in the world. She has worked in close collaboration with Professor Joseph Drew on several papers about local government finance and policies in Australia and Korea.

Her research focuses on local government service delivery, public finance, community development, and community wellbeing indicators. She has published her works in both English and Korean in the top public administration and local government journals. She is also the co-author of Local Autonomy: Politics and Policy (in Korean) – a leading textbook on local government administration in Korea.

Professor Kim has participated in large scale projects in the U.S. to collect local government service delivery and finance data to provide a more balanced assessment of local governments and their responses to fiscal stress, especially for rural communities. Yunji was also a member of a 10-year government funded project to collect community wellbeing data in Korea and around the world in collaboration with scholars from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Taiwan, and the U.S. She has also shared her research with hundreds of local government officials and practitioners through presentations and popular publications.

Qualifications: Professor Kim received her doctoral degree from Cornell University (2017), her master's degree from the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University (2011), and her bachelor's degree from Georgetown University (2009, cum laude).