Independent expert enlisted to guide financial sustainability
Published on 05 September 2025
Cessnock City Council has engaged an independent expert, Professor Joseph Drew, to support its drive towards financial sustainability.
This significant step in Cessnock City Council’s financial sustainability journey involves an extensive consultation process with the community, led by Professor Drew, to explore all relevant factors required for an application to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for a special variation.
Commencing last week, this latest engagement follows Council’s commissioning of the University of Newcastle in late 2024 to undertake a review of its financial sustainability, which was also led by Professor Drew. The work is orientated towards providing Council and IPART with a robust evidence brief and the report will principally be orientated around audited financial data, as well as Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, of Cessnock and other councils.
Professor Drew is a leading scholar in local government finance, previously serving as Professor of Local Government Economics at the University of Newcastle's Institute for Regional Futures and now retired from full-time work. He has an extensive academic background, including qualifications as an accountant, economist, natural law philosopher, and mathematician. Professor Drew has published numerous books and articles in top-tier journals and has consulted for various governments and organisations both in Australia and internationally.
He will be joined in this phase of work by Professors Yunji Kim (Seoul National University), Masato Miyazaki (Saitama University) and Diogo Cuhna Ferreira (Lisbon University).
Cessnock City Mayor Dan Watton stressed the importance of independent expertise to guide Council’s drive towards financial sustainability, and welcomed the engagement of Professor Drew and his team of three scholars.
"As a fast-growing local government area, Council finances are increasingly under pressure as we work to deliver the range of quality services and infrastructure expected by our community," said Clr Watton.
"These budget challenges are largely due to factors such as an ageing and growing asset base, cost shifting by successive state governments, and increases to costs and materials outpacing allowable rate increases capped by the state government.
"These problems are not unique to our Council, and are faced by the vast majority of the local government sector.
"It’s vital that Council continues to do the work to achieve a financially sustainable future, and the independent advice from Professor Drew’s team will provide the foundations to make informed decisions guided by the best evidence."
Professor Drew will be leading a series of community engagement sessions in November. In the meantime, visit this webpage for more information.