40 Essential Local Government Thought Leaders ANZ

Local government sits closer to people's daily lives than any other tier of government. The decision-makers shaping how roads are maintained, how community centres are funded, how housing gets built, and how residents feel heard or ignored work overwhelmingly at the council level. And yet the conversation about leadership in this sector remains surprisingly thin. Most leadership books, keynotes, and university programs are designed for corporate or national government contexts.

The vocabulary of shareholder value, quarterly earnings, and market competition does not map onto a sector where success is measured in community wellbeing across decades, where every budget decision is publicly visible, and where the people responsible for delivering services are also accountable to the residents who receive them.

Australia and New Zealand's local government leaders work inside this environment every single day. According to research widely cited across the Australian sector, councils deliver approximately 25 percent of all public services in Australia on just 4 percent of total taxation revenue. That ratio would test any leadership team anywhere in the world.

In New Zealand, the pressure is especially acute in 2026: the national government has issued councils a three-month deadline to submit amalgamation and reorganisation proposals by 9 August 2026, creating one of the most significant governance reform moments in the sector's modern history. The Davidson Australian Local Government CEO Index, released in September 2025, found that leadership capability has become the number one concern for Australian council CEOs, with 91 percent reporting concern about gaps in their executive pipeline.

The voices on this list understand these pressures. They include academics who have built the intellectual infrastructure for understanding how local government works, peak body leaders currently advocating for reform and better funding, council CEOs demonstrating what excellent execution looks like, consultants and coaches working directly with elected members and executives, and sector practitioners pushing the field toward new thinking.

Every person was selected on three criteria: documented and substantive contribution to local government and council leadership specifically in Australia or New Zealand; active and visible engagement in the public conversation in 2025 or 2026; and a deliberate effort to surface voices that readers may not yet have encountered alongside the more prominent names the sector already knows.

If your council leadership team would benefit from a workshop, keynote, or facilitated offsite on leadership dynamics, communication, and team performance, contact Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

Why Local Government Leadership Matters in 2026

The structural pressures on councils across Australia and New Zealand have never been more visible. Rates revenue is constrained, cost-shifting from state and federal governments is accelerating, housing targets are generating community conflict, and the relationship between elected members and professional executives is under strain in ways that no governance manual fully anticipates.

Municipal Association of Victoria CEO Kelly Grigsby stated plainly in December 2025 that the sector is at a crossroads where councils are being asked to do more in more complex ways with less certainty and mounting financial strain.

That crossroads makes the people on this list more important than ever. Researchers who have spent decades understanding how councils work provide the intellectual grounding for evidence-based reform. Peak body leaders who advocate for better funding and legislative frameworks determine whether councils have the resources to lead well.

Council CEOs and practitioners who share what works, what fails, and what they wish they had known provide practical wisdom that no academic framework alone can replicate. Consultants and coaches who work with elected members and executives help the human dimension of leadership survive structural pressures that would otherwise crush it.

Following these voices does not replace strong leadership inside your own organisation. What it does is give you a wider frame of reference for the decisions you face, a connection to ideas being tested and refined across hundreds of councils, and the reassurance that the specific challenges facing your council are shared by peers you can learn from. These are the voices worth following in 2026 if you lead, work in, or study local government in Australia or New Zealand.

Research from SGS Economics and Planning estimates that local governments could boost Australia's GDP by up to $7 billion per year if councils were sustainably funded by the federal government. That figure underscores the economic as well as democratic stakes of getting local government leadership right.

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based leadership consultant, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, and Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with public sector organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, substantive and documented contribution specifically to local government and council leadership in Australia or New Zealand, not merely general public sector or corporate leadership. Second, active engagement in the public conversation in 2025 or 2026 through writing, speaking, research, or sector advocacy.

Third, a deliberate emphasis on mid-tier and emerging voices that readers may not yet have encountered, alongside the more prominent names the sector already knows. This list spans academia, peak body leadership, council management, consultancy, training, and research, and deliberately moved past broad leadership voices to surface people whose work is grounded in the AU/NZ local government context.

Category One: The Intellectual Foundation

The scholarship grounding serious thinking about local government exists in only a handful of universities across Australia and New Zealand. These researchers have spent careers building the evidence base that policy debates and practice conversations depend on.

1. Alicia McKay

Among the most widely followed and practically useful voices in local government across Australia and New Zealand, Alicia McKay operates as an author, strategist, keynote speaker, and conference facilitator from her Wellington-based practice. Her three books, including Local Legends: How to Make a Difference in Local Government and You Don't Need an MBA, address governance-management dynamics, strategic decision-making, and the specific leadership capabilities council managers and elected members need in complex environments.

She has worked with more than 50 councils across Australia and New Zealand and headlined the 2022 Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly for over 1,000 mayors and CEOs. In 2025, McKay was named one of the Top 25 Global Thinkers in Local Government by the UK Local Government Information Unit.

Her distinctive contribution is a refusal to dress up straightforward leadership thinking in language practitioners cannot act on, translating complex governance and strategy ideas into guidance that elected members and senior officers can use the following Monday morning.

2. Brian Dollery

Brian Dollery is Emeritus Professor at the University of New England in Australia and the most prolific academic researcher on Australian local government currently active in the field. His research spans structural reform, financial sustainability, amalgamation policy, shared services, and performance measurement across Australia's councils, with particular depth in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria.

His co-authored book Local Government in Australia: History, Theory and Public Policy (2017, co-authored with Bligh Grant) remains the most comprehensive empirically grounded analysis of the Australian sector available. Dollery's decades of published research have created an evidence base that state government reform processes, parliamentary inquiries, and council peak bodies draw on regularly.

For any council leader engaging in debates about boundary reform, financial viability, or service delivery design in Australia, his work is the foundational reference.

3. Bligh Grant

Bligh Grant is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and a Governance Officer at Clarence Valley Council in New South Wales, giving him a position that deliberately bridges academic research and frontline council practice. He is co-author of Local Government in Australia: History, Theory and Public Policy (2017, with Brian Dollery), and his research brings political studies, applied ethics, and governance frameworks to questions at the intersection of political theory and council management.

His work on gender leadership pathways in local government and on the ethical dimensions of public inquiries has been widely cited. Grant's move from full-time academia to a governance officer role at Clarence Valley Council reflects a commitment to grounding research in how councils actually operate rather than theorising from a distance, giving him an unusual dual perspective on governance design.

4. Peter McKinlay

Peter McKinlay is Executive Director of McKinlay Douglas Ltd in New Zealand and that country's most experienced independent voice on local governance design, community governance, and the structural dimensions of council leadership. Through his Bay of Plenty-based consultancy and earlier directorship of the Local Government Centre at AUT University, he has produced decades of advisory work on local government reform and metropolitan governance.

His LinkedIn commentary in 2025 and 2026 has focused on the fundamental tension between growing infrastructure cost burdens on ratepayers and the need to preserve community empowerment as a core governance value. McKinlay argues simultaneously for structural reform and for local empowerment, insisting these goals are not contradictory when reform is designed from communities up rather than from Wellington down, a position that is especially relevant to New Zealand's current amalgamation debate.

5. Marcus Spiller

Marcus Spiller is a founding Partner at SGS Economics and Planning in Australia, a Life Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia, and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. His research on local government financial sustainability, infrastructure funding gaps, housing policy, and metropolitan governance has shaped national policy debates.

In July 2024 he presented research at the Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly demonstrating that local governments could boost Australia's GDP by up to $7 billion per year if councils received sustainable federal funding, a figure that directly informed ALGA's 2025 and 2026 advocacy. Spiller's contribution sits at the intersection of economics and governance, allowing him to translate the financial pressures councils face into language that treasury officials, state ministers, and council executives can all engage with in the same conversation.

6. Graham Sansom

Graham Sansom is a former CEO of the Australian Local Government Association and former editor of the Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, now an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. His work on structural reform, metropolitan governance, and the financial sustainability of Australian councils has shaped policy debates across multiple states over multiple decades.

He remains one of the most frequently cited Australian experts in parliamentary submissions and policy reviews involving local government structure, funding, and reform. Sansom's historical perspective on how the Australian sector has evolved is particularly valuable at a moment when structural reform proposals are again prominent in several states. His ability to contextualise current debates within the longer arc of Australian local government development distinguishes his analysis.

Category Two: Peak Body and Advocacy Leaders

The organisations representing councils' collective interests at state, national, and international levels shape the policy environment every council must operate within. The people leading those organisations in 2025 and 2026 carry some of the heaviest responsibilities in the sector.

7. Scott Necklen

Scott Necklen is Chief Executive of Local Government New Zealand, appointed permanently in March 2026 after serving as Interim CE from September 2025. He brings 13 years of institutional knowledge of LGNZ to the role during a period of extraordinary challenge for New Zealand local government, including the national government's forced amalgamation agenda, rates reform, and Local Water Done Well policy.

His stated focus on membership value and ensuring LGNZ wields genuine influence in the long-term interests of local democracy positions him as a rebuilder at a time when the organisation's membership has been under pressure. Necklen's willingness to engage constructively with central government while advocating for local decision-making authority has characterised his public communications throughout 2026, at a moment when New Zealand councils need their peak body to be both principled and pragmatic.

8. Kelly Grigsby

Kelly Grigsby is CEO of the Municipal Association of Victoria, appointed in July 2023 following successful tenures as CEO of both the City of Hobart and Wyndham City Council. She is a Senior Honorary Fellow at the Melbourne School of Government and a member of CEDA's State Advisory Council.

Under her leadership, the MAV released The Future is Local in December 2025, a comprehensive paper calling for generational transformation of local government in Victoria and outlining five foundational commitments for reform ahead of the 2026 Victorian state election. Grigsby has also been a prominent public voice on the disinformation and harassment crisis facing council leaders, commissioning research in early 2026 that documented the growing threat to democratic participation when local leaders withdraw from public life because of sustained online abuse.

9. Matt Burnett

Matt Burnett is President of the Australian Local Government Association and President of the Local Government Association of Queensland, serving simultaneously as Mayor of Gladstone Regional Council. He brings 25 years of local government experience and a deep connection to regional Queensland communities to his national advocacy role.

His ALGA presidency has focused on financial sustainability, fair funding, housing, roads, and ensuring local government has a genuine voice in federal policy conversations that directly affect communities. Burnett's advocacy has been consistently grounded in the financial sustainability crisis facing councils, backed by research and a willingness to carry the sector's message directly into federal and national cabinet processes. His dual role as ALGA and LGAQ president gives him an unusual level of institutional reach across national and state advocacy simultaneously.

10. Victoria MacKirdy

Victoria MacKirdy is the incoming Chief Executive of the Local Government Association of South Australia, appointed in May 2026 and commencing in July 2026, bringing nearly 30 years of local government experience from her role as CEO of the City of Victor Harbor since 2018 and her service as President of Local Government Professionals Australia.

Her appointment comes at a time of significant reform pressure and debate about council structure, financial sustainability, and the sector's relationship with the South Australian state government. MacKirdy's advocacy record, combined with her board experience and her leadership track record at Victor Harbor, positions her as a credible voice for South Australia's 68 councils at a moment when the sector needs strong, unified representation.

11. Kat Panjari

Kat Panjari is Director of Strategic Foresight and Partnerships at the Municipal Association of Victoria, bringing experience that includes an acting CEO role at the City of Hobart and senior positions at Moreland City Council and City of Whittlesea. Her evidence to the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into local government funding and services in 2024 articulated the structural and financial pressures on Victoria's councils with clarity.

She argued that councils cannot address the future's challenges without a genuine seat at the table in shaping the policies they implement. Panjari's role leading MAV's strategic foresight work places her at the centre of thinking about what Victorian local government needs to look like by 2030, an increasingly important conversation given the mounting financial and operational pressures on the sector.

12. Phyllis Miller OAM

Phyllis Miller OAM is President of Local Government NSW and Mayor of Forbes Shire Council, bringing three decades of experience in rural and regional local government to the state's peak advocacy body. She was awarded the Councillor Lilliane Brady OAM Award at the 2025 NSW Ministers' Awards for Women in Local Government, recognising her service to communities and her contribution to encouraging women's participation in local government.

As LGNSW President, she has placed financial sustainability at the top of the advocacy agenda, calling out the unsustainable pattern of cost-shifting from state and federal governments as the sector's most urgent concern. Miller's credibility as a rural and regional voice makes her particularly effective in advocacy conversations about councils most exposed to cost-shifting and funding inadequacy. Her willingness to speak plainly about what the sector needs from government distinguishes her public communications.

13. Suzanne Boyd

Suzanne Boyd is Chief Executive of Taituara, the professional body for local government managers in New Zealand formerly known as SOLGM, appointed in November 2023. She brings extensive experience from membership-based organisations and national employment platforms to a role directly shaping how New Zealand's council managers develop and advance during a period of significant reform pressure.

Her commentary on sector challenges reflects a commitment to practical capability-building, including the partnership with Datacom announced in October 2025 to improve councils' digital service delivery. Boyd's background outside the local government sector itself gives her a fresh perspective on the membership and professional development challenges Taituara faces as councils navigate workforce pressures, structural reform, and growing community expectations.

14. Rehette Stoltz

Rehette Stoltz is President of Local Government New Zealand, elected to lead the LGNZ National Council following the 2025 local government elections. She oversaw the confirmation of Scott Necklen as permanent CE in March 2026, describing his collaborative leadership style as exactly what LGNZ needs to navigate its next chapter.

As President during one of the most consequential reform periods in New Zealand local government history, she is steering the peak body through conditions that require both firmness and flexibility in equal measure. Stoltz's ability to articulate LGNZ's position constructively while the organisation rebuilds its membership trust, including through the difficult conversations about the amalgamation agenda, is one of the defining challenges of her presidency.

Category Three: Council CEOs and Elected Leaders in Practice

The most powerful evidence that excellent local government leadership is possible comes not from research or advocacy but from councils themselves. These leaders are practising what the sector's thinkers advocate.

15. Alison Leighton

Alison Leighton is CEO of the City of Melbourne, Australia's most visible metropolitan council, in a role she has held since July 2023. A qualified engineer who became a Fellow of Engineers Australia in 2025 and has completed leadership programs at Harvard Business School and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, she leads an organisation whose budget, workforce, and public profile few other councils can match.

Her public commentary in 2025 and 2026 has focused on housing affordability, population growth management, and the importance of placing community wellbeing at the centre of strategic planning decisions even when those decisions involve difficult trade-offs. Leighton's approach, which she describes as stewardship rather than ownership of the city, models a form of council CEO leadership that consistently keeps long-term community benefit ahead of short-term operational or political convenience.

16. Derek Madden

Derek Madden is CEO of Moorabool Shire Council in Victoria and a practitioner voice on workforce planning and the future of local government employment. His think piece for LGiU Australia in September 2025, arguing that councils must fundamentally redefine workforce planning for the future, captured a challenge that council executives across Australia and New Zealand are navigating.

Traditional approaches to attracting, developing, and retaining local government professionals are no longer adequate for the demands the sector now faces. Madden's willingness to publish critical and forward-looking analysis about sector workforce challenges, rather than simply managing those challenges privately, makes him a valuable public voice for mid-sized Victorian councils navigating the same pressures he describes.

17. Steph O'Sullivan

Steph O'Sullivan is Chief Executive of Waipa District Council in New Zealand, appointed in August 2024, bringing five and a half years as Chief Executive of Whakatane District Council before that. Her appointment to Waipa, one of the fastest-growing areas in the Waikato region, came as the council navigated significant decisions around water services, housing, and community infrastructure.

Her mayor described her as a vision and values driven professional whose passion lies in building community wealth, not just organisational wealth. O'Sullivan brings to her role a background in resource and environmental planning, Kellogg Rural Leadership training, and a reputation for servant leadership that treats community wellbeing as the primary measure of council success.

18. Lucy Roffey

Lucy Roffey is Chief Executive Officer of Glen Eira City Council in Victoria, appointed in August 2025 following the nine-year tenure of Rebecca McKenzie. She brings more than 15 years of local government experience, including as CEO of Central Goldfields Shire Council during its emergence from state administration, one of the most demanding leadership contexts in the Australian sector.

She is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, with expertise spanning finance, corporate governance, and stakeholder management. Roffey's experience guiding a council through the aftermath of state administration gives her practical insights into governance recovery and cultural rebuilding that are increasingly relevant as more councils navigate external intervention and dysfunction.

19. Monique Davidson

Monique Davidson is Chief Executive of Horowhenua District Council in New Zealand, where she was the youngest local government chief executive in the country when first appointed at age 29. She serves as Vice President of Taituara and has built her career across multiple councils in New Zealand, with a systems-level approach to community wellbeing that addresses the connections between housing, services, governance, and long-term financial sustainability.

Her LinkedIn commentary in 2025 and 2026 addresses strategic alignment and internal culture as determinants of whether councils deliver consistently on their community commitments. Davidson's career trajectory, from front-line council roles to CE at one of New Zealand's growing districts, models a leadership pathway the sector needs to replicate systematically if the CE pipeline gap identified in the 2025 Australian CEO Index is to be addressed.

20. Hamish Riach

Hamish Riach is Chief Executive of Ashburton District Council in New Zealand, reappointed in March 2025 for a further five-year term. He brings 18 years of local government sector experience across financial and chief executive roles at four district and city councils, along with previous chief executive experience in the private sector.

His reappointment was framed by the Mayor as the right decision going into a period of elections and government reforms, with stability and continuity of experienced leadership cited as the primary rationale. Riach's longevity at Ashburton and his capacity to maintain organisational trust across multiple political cycles demonstrates what sustained, patient council CE leadership looks like in a sector that often celebrates movement over consistency.

21. Neil Holdom

Neil Holdom served as Mayor of New Plymouth District Council for three terms from 2016 to 2025, one of the longest-serving and most visible mayoral voices in New Zealand local government during a period of significant national policy change. He did not stand for a fourth term at the October 2025 elections, leaving a legacy of infrastructure leadership, direct public communication, and active engagement in national conversations about council funding, water reform, and the governance framework for local democracy.

He spoke at the 2025 LGNZ Annual Conference, where his background in public and private infrastructure, strategy, and communications contributed to the sector's thinking on long-term governance challenges. Holdom's three-term tenure gave him an unusually long perspective on how national policy changes land at the council level, and his post-mayoral commentary on what the sector needs from central government remains one of the more grounded practitioner voices in the New Zealand conversation.

22. Craig Hobbs

Craig Hobbs is Chief Executive of Waikato Regional Council, appointed in February 2025. His appointment came as the Waikato region navigated significant pressures around environmental management, infrastructure planning, and the national government's proposals to restructure regional governance.

His steady leadership during the May 2026 membership debate at the Waikato Regional Council, when the council voted 10-3 to remain with LGNZ, contributed to maintaining the regional sector's collective voice during a moment of significant political pressure. The Waikato Regional Council serves one of New Zealand's most complex and fast-growing regions. Leading it through a fundamental restructuring of regional governance architecture requires exactly the kind of patient, community-focused executive leadership that Hobbs has modelled since taking the role.

23. Fiona McTavish

Fiona McTavish is Chief Executive of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, known as Toi Moana, which serves one of New Zealand's most ecologically and culturally significant regions. The council operates across a diverse region, balancing environmental management responsibilities with community development and regional transport planning for a growing population.

Her leadership encompasses the complex Te Mana o te Wai freshwater reform work and ongoing engagement with iwi partners on resource management and environmental governance. McTavish's leadership of a regional council through major environmental reform, community partnership obligations, and structural reform pressures models the particular leadership demands of New Zealand's regional tier of government at a moment when that tier's future structure is under fundamental review.

24. Sarah Dixson

Sarah Dixson, formerly known as Sarah Swan, is Mayor of Woollahra Municipal Council in New South Wales, elected in October 2024. A family lawyer by profession, she has emerged as one of the clearest practitioner voices on the financial sustainability challenge facing Australian councils, particularly the problem of cost-shifting from state governments.

Her interview with LGiU Australia in September 2025 provided an unusually frank account of the gap between what residents expect from councils and the financial reality councils operate within, noting that Woollahra's cost-shifting calculations showed approximately $16 million in a single financial year. Dixson's professional background in family law gives her sensitivity to the community-level impacts of governance decisions, and her public honesty about the structural financial pressures councils face models the transparency that effective elected leadership demands.

25. Alex Waldron

Alex Waldron is CEO of Upper Lachlan Shire Council in New South Wales, a regional council serving a dispersed rural community in the central tablelands. He attended the 2025 Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly in Canberra alongside Deputy Mayor Rob Cameron, contributing to the national conversation under the theme "National Priorities Need Local Solutions."

His leadership of a rural and regional council through national policy debates on housing, infrastructure, and financial sustainability exemplifies the challenges facing smaller councils often overshadowed by metropolitan voices in national conversations. Waldron's willingness to bring his council's specific rural and regional perspective to national forums ensures that the realities of smaller councils remain visible in policy discussions where the interests of major city councils tend to dominate the agenda.

26. Moira Were AM

Moira Were AM is Mayor of the City of Onkaparinga in South Australia, a role she has held since 2022. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 for service to the South Australian community across social justice, volunteering, and leadership.

Her career spans social work, community development, public participation, social enterprise, and local government, with a sustained commitment to creating conditions where people of all backgrounds have equal opportunity to belong, contribute, and thrive. Were's background in social work and public participation gives her a community engagement framework that treats residents as genuine partners in decision-making rather than recipients of consultation, a distinction that matters enormously in how councils build and sustain public trust.

Category Four: Governance Specialists, Consultants and Trainers

The governance-management interface is one of the most discussed and least well-understood dimensions of council leadership. These specialists work directly at that interface, translating good governance principles into practical skills for elected members and executives.

27. Emma Broomfield

Emma Broomfield is Founder and Lead Facilitator of Locale Learning in New South Wales, a training and coaching organisation built specifically for local councillors navigating the human and governance dimensions of elected office. A trained lawyer and mediator with 20 years of experience in the local government sector, she has worked in more than 40 local government areas with hundreds of councillors as a trainer, coach, facilitator, Code of Conduct reviewer, and legal advisor.

Her 2025 Political Wellbeing Framework treats the mental wellbeing of elected representatives as a governance issue with direct consequences for how well councils function. Broomfield's central argument, that the most significant barrier to good governance is not the absence of rules but the presence of unmanaged conflict, power dynamics, and human stress, has shaped a body of practical training that addresses what most governance handbooks leave out entirely.

28. Julie Reid

Julie Reid is a Director and Coach at LGeX, Local Government Experts, in Victoria, a consultancy providing mentoring, coaching, facilitation, and advisory services specifically to the local government sector. Her expertise covers executive leadership, governance, and organisational development challenges that council CEOs, directors, and elected members face.

LGeX works across councils of all sizes, with a particular strength in supporting leaders through periods of transition, restructure, or governance challenge. Reid's practice embodies an approach to local government consulting that combines deep sector knowledge with executive coaching capabilities, recognising that the most difficult challenges facing council leaders are as much human and relational as they are technical or structural.

29. John Bennie PSM

John Bennie PSM served for 48 years in local government, including 22 years as CEO at Greater Dandenong City Council and Manningham City Council in Victoria, before retiring in late 2022. He was awarded a Public Service Medal in 2014 for outstanding public service in the pursuit of excellence in local government management.

He now provides leadership and strategic advice to local governments through LGeX and serves as Chair of MannaCare Inc. and non-executive Director at Box Hill Institute, maintaining active engagement with the sector he spent his career building. Bennie's half-century of practitioner experience gives him a perspective on council leadership that no academic framework can replicate. His transition from career CEO to sector mentor and advisor represents one of the more constructive ways that accumulated local government knowledge can be preserved and transferred to the next generation.

30. Toi Iti

Toi Iti is a Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor with a background in creative leadership, kaupapa Maori advocacy, and regional development. She spoke at the 2025 LGNZ Annual Conference and brings a perspective on local government leadership that centres Te Ao Maori frameworks, community voice, and the particular leadership responsibilities that arise when councils must navigate both western governance models and Treaty commitments to iwi partners.

Her work bridges creative sector leadership, Maori cultural advocacy, and the formal governance structures of regional councils in New Zealand. Iti represents an important dimension of local government leadership in New Zealand that is often underrepresented in mainstream sector commentary: the leadership that emerges when indigenous cultural values and community relationships are placed genuinely at the centre of decision-making rather than treated as consultation requirements.

31. David Clark

David Clark is President of the Municipal Association of Victoria, serving as the elected chair of Victoria's peak body for 79 councils alongside its professional executive. He represented the MAV at the 2024 Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly and has been an active presence in state and national conversations about local government funding, housing, and sector reform.

His role as both a serving councillor and the elected head of Victoria's peak body gives him a perspective that bridges the professional management side and the elected representative side of council governance. Clark's leadership of the MAV Board during one of the most significant reform periods in Victorian local government history requires managing the collective interests of 79 very different councils while maintaining a clear and unified advocacy voice to state and federal governments.

32. Vajini Pannila

Vajini Pannila is Principal and Co-lead of the Civic and Communities Sector at Warren and Mahoney, one of New Zealand's leading architectural practices, bringing 14 years of international experience at firms including Foster and Partners and Rogers Stirk Harbour before returning to New Zealand in 2021. She spoke at the 2025 LGNZ Annual Conference and currently leads the Te Manawataki o te Papa civic projects in Tauranga, a major reimagining of the civic precinct at the heart of one of New Zealand's fastest-growing cities.

Her design ethos places people and their lived experiences at the core of how civic spaces are created. Pannila's work is directly relevant to local government leadership because how councils design and steward civic spaces shapes the community relationships and democratic participation that elected leaders depend on. Her international expertise applied in the New Zealand context makes her a valuable voice at the intersection of design and governance.

33. Pauline Bennett

Pauline Bennett is a highly experienced HR and organisational development specialist in the Victorian local government sector, with over 30 years of leadership experience across human resources, industrial relations, and workforce development. Through her work with LGeX and her previous service as an elected board member of LGPro, the professional association for Victorian council officers, she has contributed to the development of workforce standards, code of conduct frameworks, and leadership development programs that shape how councils attract and retain the talent they need.

Bennett's sustained focus on the workforce and people dimensions of local government leadership addresses the pipeline challenge that the 2025 CEO Index identified as the sector's most pressing concern. Without deliberate investment in talent development, the skills gap that today's CEOs are already managing will become tomorrow's sector-wide crisis.

Category Five: Sector Voices and Commentators

Some of the most valuable perspectives on local government leadership come from people who have held major roles and are now in a position to reflect honestly on what they experienced, what worked, and what the sector needs to change.

34. Rebecca McKenzie

Rebecca McKenzie served as CEO of Glen Eira City Council in Victoria for nine years until August 2025, leaving the organisation with some of its highest-ever staff engagement levels and community satisfaction scores. She was named one of Public Sector Network's Global Top 50 Government Innovators in 2023 and remains active as Chair of Zoos Victoria and as a sector commentator.

Her LGiU Australia interview in May 2024, discussing the management of relationships with elected councillors and the essential role of values like respect, trust, and public purpose, remains one of the most widely circulated pieces on the governance-management interface in recent Australian sector discourse. McKenzie's nine-year track record of building organisational culture that produced sustained staff wellbeing, high community satisfaction, and effective governance demonstrates what excellent council CEO leadership produces when given the time and stability to develop fully.

35. Susan Freeman-Greene

Susan Freeman-Greene served as Chief Executive of Local Government New Zealand from October 2020 until August 2025, steering the peak body through the three waters reform debate, the Local Water Done Well transition, and the post-COVID recovery. Before LGNZ, she was CEO of Engineering New Zealand from 2015, and her legal and mediation background shaped her approach to sector governance and dispute resolution.

Her departure from the LGNZ CE role was marked by tributes from across the sector acknowledging her calm and measured leadership during turbulent times. Freeman-Greene's departure from the LGNZ CE role creates a body of reflective experience about what it takes to lead the sector's peak body through major national reform cycles, experience that is increasingly relevant to the current restructuring agenda.

36. Linda Scott

Linda Scott served as President of the Australian Local Government Association from 2021 until September 2024, and before that as a City of Sydney Councillor from 2012. During her ALGA presidency, she led the sector through significant advocacy work on financial sustainability, housing, and climate adaptation.

The 2025 National General Assembly theme "National Priorities Need Local Solutions" built on advocacy frameworks she developed during her term. She remains active as a sector commentator, particularly on gender equity in local government and on the role of councils in climate adaptation. Scott's ALGA presidency demonstrated that elected member voices can be effective national advocacy leaders for the sector alongside professional executives, a model of peak body leadership with important implications for how the sector chooses and develops its national representatives.

37. Sam Broughton

Sam Broughton served as President of Local Government New Zealand from 2023 and as Mayor of Selwyn District Council. He was not re-elected as Selwyn Mayor in the October 2025 local elections, with LGNZ's Interim CE acknowledging his service to local government in the post-election period.

During his LGNZ presidency, he navigated the organisation through significant debates about membership, the Three Waters reform reversal, and the transition to the new national government's local government agenda. His experience at the intersection of elected community leadership and peak body governance provides insights into the specific pressures that role carries. Broughton's tenure offers lessons about the particular challenges of representing councils nationally while remaining directly accountable to ratepayers in your own community, a dual accountability that shapes every decision a LGNZ president must make.

38. Darriea Turley AM

Darriea Turley AM served as President of Local Government NSW until her unexpected retirement from the role in January 2025, having provided exceptional service to LGNSW members during a period of significant sector pressure in New South Wales. As Councillor representing Broken Hill, she brought a deep understanding of the challenges facing remote and rural councils to the state peak body's advocacy work.

Her receipt of the prestigious Ministers' Award in 2023 recognised her service to the sector, and the warmth of tributes across the NSW local government community on her departure reflected the genuine respect she earned. Turley's decade of sector leadership, particularly her advocacy for regional and remote councils whose needs are systematically underrepresented in metropolitan-dominated policy conversations, created a legacy of rural voice in NSW local government that her successor inherited and continues to build on.

39. Steph Rotarangi

Dr Steph Rotarangi served as CEO of Napier City Council from early 2021 until mid-2022, having previously led Victoria's COVID-19 emergency response as Deputy Commissioner of Emergency Management Victoria and before that overseen the 2019-20 Victorian bushfire response. Her background in systems-level emergency management brought an unusually sophisticated understanding of complex organisational coordination to local government management.

Her departure from Napier amid widely reported governance dysfunction became an important sector conversation about the conditions under which capable executives cannot succeed regardless of individual leadership quality. Rotarangi's experience, and the sector conversations it prompted about governance standards and the protective frameworks council executives need, contributed to important thinking about how councils should evaluate their own governance health before expecting executives to resolve what governance failures create.

40. Claire Chaikin-Bryan

Claire Chaikin-Bryan is Smart Cities Lead at Lake Macquarie City Council in New South Wales, a qualified Town Planner and Civil and Environmental Engineer with a background in construction planning, digital engineering, and computer programming who was named the Australia and New Zealand 2020 Smart Cities Emerging Leader. She has been working in the smart cities space since 2016, implementing digital and data-driven initiatives at Lake Macquarie that are shaping how medium-sized Australian councils approach the intersection of technology, service delivery, and community engagement.

Chaikin-Bryan's work represents an emerging leadership category in local government: the officer-practitioner who is building new capability inside councils rather than simply advising from outside. Her combination of technical depth and operational implementation experience makes her voice particularly valuable for councils trying to understand what digital transformation actually requires in practice.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several voices considered for this list were ultimately excluded by editorial choice rather than because their contribution to local government is not significant. The list deliberately moved past international figures like Robin Hambleton, James Svara, Ronald Heifetz, Donna Hall, and Jonathan Carr-West, all of whom appear on global council leadership lists and whose work is genuinely relevant to the AU/NZ context, in favour of voices who are specifically grounded in the Australian and New Zealand experience. Their work is worth seeking out, but this list is designed to surface the voices closest to the specific conditions of councils in this part of the world.

Within the AU/NZ context, several current state ministers for local government, including Simon Watts in New Zealand and various state counterparts in Australia, shape the sector profoundly through legislation and funding decisions. They were not included because this list focuses on thought leadership rather than political office.

Similarly, a number of council CEOs and practitioners in Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory, whose work is excellent but whose public profiles were harder to confirm with the source documentation this list required, were close to making the final cut.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Local Government Leadership

The most persistent mistake in local government leadership is treating the sector as a smaller, less well-resourced version of state government. It is not. Councils operate in a structurally different environment where power is formally split between elected members and appointed executives, where public legitimacy matters as much as managerial efficiency, and where community conflict is constant and hyperlocal.

Leaders who import private sector or state government frameworks without adjusting for this context consistently underestimate how different the governance-management interface actually is at the council level.

A second common error is approaching community engagement as a compliance requirement rather than a genuine leadership practice. Councils that treat consultation as a process to be managed before decisions are implemented, rather than a relationship to be built before decisions are made, consistently find that communities do not trust the outcomes even when the technical quality of decisions is high.

The voices on this list who come from community development backgrounds, like Moira Were AM and Toi Iti, understand that trust must precede authority in local government in ways that are fundamentally different from corporate or even state government contexts.

The third mistake is underinvesting in the governance-management interface specifically, the dynamic between elected members and professional executives. It is not enough to have good councillors and a capable CEO. The relationship between them, the clarity about respective roles, and the quality of the communication and decision-making processes between the governing body and the executive are what determine whether a council actually functions well or whether the talent on both sides cancels itself out.

Emma Broomfield's work on councillor training and the entire body of Peter McKinlay's consulting work on governance design exist precisely because this interface is so commonly mismanaged.

The fourth mistake, which has become more visible in 2025 and 2026 as financial pressure on councils intensifies, is conflating cost-cutting with financial sustainability. Councils that respond to funding gaps by cutting services are often destroying the community trust and relationships that will be needed to rebuild in better times.

The financial sustainability researchers on this list, Marcus Spiller, Brian Dollery, and the team at SGS Economics and Planning, consistently distinguish between short-term cost reduction and long-term financial viability, and the difference matters enormously for how councils manage the current period.

The fifth mistake is treating workforce development as a human resources function rather than as a strategic leadership priority. The Davidson CEO Index found 91 percent of Australian local government CEOs concerned about leadership pipeline gaps in 2025. That is not an HR problem. It is a strategic leadership problem that only gets solved when senior leaders invest deliberately in identifying, developing, and supporting the talent that will lead councils in the next decade.

Implementation Guide: Building Your AU/NZ Local Government Knowledge Network

The most effective way to benefit from the voices on this list is to build a structured following and reading practice rather than approaching them as a series of one-off discoveries. Start by identifying which two or three of the six categories in this list are most directly relevant to your current role and your most pressing challenges.

A council CEO navigating structural reform will prioritise the researchers, peak body leaders, and sector commentators. An elected member in their first term will find the governance specialists, trainers, and CEO practitioners most immediately useful. A sector consultant will benefit from engaging with the full breadth of the list.

Follow the researchers on LinkedIn or subscribe to their institutional publications. Alicia McKay's newsletter Wednesday Wisdom is one of the most practically useful regular publications in the sector. Marcus Spiller and the SGS Economics and Planning team publish regularly through LGiU Australia. Brian Dollery's work appears in academic journals but his accessible commentary also appears in sector publications. Peter McKinlay posts substantively on LinkedIn about New Zealand governance issues and is worth following directly.

Engage with the peak body publications. ALGA's fortnightly newsletter, LGNZ's media releases, the MAV's research and advocacy papers, and LGNSW's advocacy publications collectively cover the full range of sector issues across both countries. These are free, regularly updated, and contain the most current thinking on policy and legislative changes that directly affect how councils can operate.

Attend at least one sector conference each year. The LGNZ Annual Conference and SuperLocal, the ALGA National General Assembly, the MAV, LGAQ, and LGNSW annual conferences, the LGMA Queensland conference, and LGiU Australia events all bring together the people on this list and the broader sector community. The relationships and conversations that happen at these events are where the most honest and useful thinking about what is actually working in councils gets shared.

For councils investing in leadership development, consider bringing facilitators like Alicia McKay, Emma Broomfield, or the LGeX team directly into your organisation for tailored workshops on governance, strategy, or team dynamics. If you want external expertise on leadership, communication, and team performance across your council, contact Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss keynotes, workshops, or facilitated offsites. Whether virtual or in person, jonno@consultclarity.org is the starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions

How was this list compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria: substantive and documented contribution to local government and council leadership specifically in Australia or New Zealand; active engagement in the public conversation in 2025 or 2026; and a deliberate effort to surface mid-tier and emerging voices alongside the more prominent names. The list spans academics, peak body leaders, council executives, consultants, trainers, and sector commentators across both countries, with geographic and disciplinary diversity as active considerations in the selection process.

Why are some well-known global local government thinkers not on this list?

This list is specifically focused on voices grounded in the AU/NZ local government context. International thought leaders like Robin Hambleton, James Svara, Ronald Heifetz, and Donna Hall, all of whom appear on global council leadership lists, were excluded not because their work is irrelevant but because the brief was deliberately AU/NZ specific. Their work is worth seeking out as a complement to the voices here.

Can I hire someone to facilitate leadership workshops or sessions for my council?

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based keynote speaker, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out (which has sold over 10,000 copies globally), and Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with councils and public sector organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. He delivers Working Genius facilitation, DISC communication workshops, executive offsites, and leadership keynotes, and is consistently rated among the highest-performing facilitators at Australian and New Zealand sector events. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your council's needs.

What is the most urgent leadership challenge for AU/NZ councils right now?

The financial sustainability crisis is the most urgent structural challenge, affecting almost every other leadership priority. Councils that cannot fund their infrastructure backlog, cannot compete for talent, and cannot absorb cost-shifting from higher tiers of government are increasingly unable to lead effectively regardless of individual leadership quality. The researchers and peak body leaders on this list are working on multiple dimensions of this challenge simultaneously. The practitioner leaders are managing it from within their own organisations. Both perspectives are worth understanding.

What is the best way to support women in local government leadership?

The most effective approach combines three elements: deliberate pipeline investment at the mid-career level, where women are disproportionately lost from local government leadership tracks; structural changes to how councils manage conflict and political culture, which the work of Emma Broomfield and others on political wellbeing directly addresses; and visible and proactive sponsorship from senior leaders who publicly advocate for women in leadership positions.

Phyllis Miller OAM's comment at the 2025 Ministers' Awards that the sector desperately needs to highlight the strong, fierce, determined, and inspiring women doing incredible work in their communities captures both the urgency and the tone this work requires.

Where should I start if I'm new to local government?

Alicia McKay's book Local Legends: How to Make a Difference in Local Government is the single most accessible and useful starting point for elected members and officers coming into the sector. Brian Dollery and Bligh Grant's Local Government in Australia: History, Theory and Public Policy provides the structural and historical context that makes current debates comprehensible.

LGNSW, LGNZ, the MAV, and LGAQ all produce induction resources for newly elected councillors and recently appointed officers that are worth accessing early. And following Alicia McKay on LinkedIn will put a high-quality stream of AU/NZ-specific local government thinking directly into your feed.

Final Thoughts

Local government in Australia and New Zealand is under more pressure than at any point in recent memory. The financial sustainability crisis, the housing challenge, the workforce pipeline gap, structural reform uncertainty in New Zealand, and the growing complexity of community expectations are all converging simultaneously. And yet the quality of thinking, leadership, and practical innovation happening inside the sector is as high as it has ever been.

The 40 voices on this list represent a sector that is thinking hard about its own future, not waiting for answers from state or federal governments but developing its own intellectual frameworks, building its own leadership capability, and creating its own network of practice that allows councils to learn from each other at scale. That is what a healthy sector looks like from the inside.

The challenge for individual councils and their leaders is to deliberately connect to that network, drawing on the research, the advocacy, and the practitioner wisdom that these voices collectively represent, rather than treating local government leadership as a purely internal exercise. The most effective council leaders in Australia and New Zealand in 2026 are those who combine excellent internal leadership with an outward orientation toward the broader sector conversation.

If your organisation is ready to invest in leadership, communication, and team performance, Jonno White works with councils across Australia, New Zealand, and internationally to deliver keynotes, workshops, and facilitated offsites that produce lasting change. His book Step Up or Step Out has helped thousands of leaders have the conversations they have been avoiding. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference.

Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Next Read

For more on leadership in mission-driven organisations, see the blog post 50 Leading Thought Leaders in Nonprofit Leadership at consultclarity.org, which covers voices shaping how organisations with social purpose think about leadership, governance, and impact.