Kath Elliott is a leading communications professional in infrastructure delivery in Australia. Her roles in the water, renewables, energy and resources, transport and regional economic development sectors as well as in local and federal governments, has focused on high level engagement with governments, key stakeholders and community to support the delivery of key infrastructure projects.

Her strength is in assembling networks of government, organisational and community stakeholders on issues and projects of strategic importance. She has extensive experience working with communities to facilitate delivery of potentially contentious projects. Specifically, she has been responsible for developing and implementing community and stakeholder consultation and management programs, national media and advertising strategies, government relations, and strategic and business planning for regional economic development organisations.

Kath is also a highly competent facilitator. She has led a number of multidisciplinary teams, exhibiting a strong but collegiate leadership style, with a natural capacity to develop teams to achieve outstanding results. She has a depth of expertise in managing community risk on complex and controversial projects. Kath is also a highly skilled Chair of Community Consultative Committees, providing companies and communities with impartiality, ensuring the consultative process is transparent and trusting.

Current and recent projects:

• Australian Rail Track Corporation – providing community consultation, stakeholder management and community risk management for the Gunnedah Yard, Hexham Relief Roads and Chilcotts Creek Access Track projects.

• Independent Chair of the Bringelly Quarry community consultative committee, a CSR/Boral joint venture

• Independent Chair of the Silverton and Coopers Gap Wind farm projects’ community consultative committees for energy provider, AGL.

• Communications and stakeholder management for Hunter Water's Hunter Treatment Alliance, an upgrade of 13 treatment plants

• Development of the carbon price communications strategy for the Australian Coal Association, including media relations, advertising concepts, government relations and strategic positioning. This strategy was adopted by the ACA board and a wider group of industry sectors, who adopted it as the blueprint for a broad industry campaign against the then Labor government’s carbon tax

• Community engagement and stakeholder management leader for ACTEW Corporation’s Water Security – Major Projects. Kath was the program manager, leading a large team of communications professionals in an alliance delivery model

• Communications lead on consultation with the ACT community on plastic bag usage, leading to a decision by the ACT Government to ban plastic bags in supermarkets in the ACT

• Community consultation on the Water2WATER program to assess the ACT community’s appetite for a recycled purified water scheme – achieving an outcome of 75% of the population who were positive or conditionally positive to the introduction of recycled water in the ACT. Kath wrote the submission to the ACT Government, which informed their decision to proceed with the design of a demonstration water purification plant

• Management of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Kooragang Coal Loader. At the time this was the largest infrastructure project on Australia’s eastern seaboard