CEO's Desk – July 2026

We have just wrapped up another financial year and again we have achieved so much as we push our business to be better at creating and driving value for local communities.

When you come to our Annual Conference on October 20-21 you will find out a whole lot more, but here is a snapshot of what we have delivered in the last 12 months. We rebranded and launched our new website, we accelerated our First Nations Procurement Program with an endorsed and published Reconciliation Action Plan, we initiated our First Nations Procurement Forum events. We have enjoyed record event attendance numbers at our 2026 Network Meetings and Webinars.

In partnership with Telstra, we awarded our second round of Innovation Development Fund projects, we doubled our Procurement Capability Grant program funding to $300k and just closed our Release 5 project award process. We have expanded our AI program, delivered a series of external keynote speaking engagements, started our procurement practice streamlining process. Thanks to our approved contracts and the engagement by councils we now have several $100m panel contracts, and in FY26 we will again deliver well over $1b in managed council spend under our contracts.

Entering this financial year, LGP has a new 3-year strategic plan underway. Our next strategic direction will see us looking to impact ESG measurement in local government, procurement talent management, technology adoption and value extraction, transforming our contractor engagement, and zeroing in on aspects of council expenditure we want LGP to support better in the long term.

To support our strategic direction, LGP is very pleased to announce we have two new Board Members. We are very fortunate to have Jan McClelland and Mathew Baldwin join the LGP Board and attend their first meeting with us very soon. They bring excellent credentials, experience and skill which we will look to engage and learn from throughout their tenure.

Whilst we do have the annual conference in October, we also have two Sydney Network Meetings coming up in early August. We have the Procurement Network Meeting on Wednesday 5th, then the Engineering Network Meeting on the 6th. Both events are being held at Rydges Sydney Central (28 Albion Street, Sydney). We have reached capacity for our Procurement event, and I am told we are closing in on maximum numbers for the room for our Engineering event, please click here if you want to secure your seat.

Thank you.