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Leon Walker
Deputy Secretary - Property, Workplace and Development,
NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure
- I joined the NSW Government in 2015 after a career in investment banking and funds management with Macquarie and Mirvac
- I am Deputy Secretary of Property, Workplace and Development in the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure; the role has responsibility for a number of NSW Government agencies undertaking State significant work including Sydney Olympic Park Authority, the Office of Strategic Lands, Property and Development NSW, Waste Assets Management Corporation and Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation.
- A significant recent addition to this portfolio is the NSW Government’s Pre-sale Finance Guarantee program, a new NSW Government policy initiative that is enabling the delivery of new homes through Government pre-commitment to the purchase of dwellings off-the-plan in development ready residential projects located across NSW.
- Important initiatives I’ve led in recent times include: development and launch of the NSW Government’s Land Audit, identifying government owned land that can be repurposed to delivery critically needed housing across NSW; and, development and launch of the Government Property Framework, a new governance model to efficiently and effectively govern the use and transfer of land within the government sector.
- PDNSW has been a leader within the NSW Government in respect to recognising and acting on its responsibility to make a significant and lasting contribution to the prospects and welfare of Aboriginal people across NSW; this has included:
- effecting a number of negotiated land transfers to Aboriginal organisations including Brewarrina, Mooney Mooney, Eden and Grafton;
- inclusion of Aboriginal employment and procurement targets in service and delivery contracts;
- embracing the NSW Government’s Connecting with Country framework in the design of precincts it is leading; and
- after adopting our first Reflect RAP in March 2023, quickly progressing to the second stage Innovate RAP in March this year by demonstrating our commitment to reconciliation through action.
Sessions