Lachlan McKenzie

Director Communications Strategy & Media

Transport for NSW

I worked closely with Elizabeth during the development and implementation of the NSW Government’s 2016 reforms to the taxi, hire car and rideshare industry.  My role was to provide a strategy for communications and industry engagement throughout the delivery of the reforms. The challenge was multifaceted.  

  

On one hand there was a pantheon of NSW Government agencies with a stake in the success of the reforms, with mandates large enough to influence our direction. Not to mention the other Australian jurisdictions interested in our pioneering reforms. The external relationships with the taxi, hire care and rideshare industry were all at different levels of engagement before the reforms, and during, the intensity, political sensitivity and potential for dynamic change was often difficult to track and manage together.  

  

Likewise, the capacity and capability of Roads and Maritime Services to prepare for the transition in safety and enforcement regime was a challenge we were all conscious of.  They historically held a lot of corporate knowledge being the regulatory agency for this industry up until the reforms. Elizabeth was introduced to me once the Government’s intention to legislate a new safety regime, an industry assistance fund and a new regulatory agency was announced.

 

It was very clear why Elizabeth had been tapped on the shoulder to take on the reform implementation role, her corporate knowledge of RMS operations, ability for forensic legal analysis and no nonsense interpersonal skills were exactly what the role required.  

  

Partnering with my boss, the Transport for NSW Director of the reform project, we jointly navigated the bureaucracy to ensure Central Agencies, Transport for NSW, RMS, the NSW Police and State Revenue were on the same page with the direction the reforms were heading.  I was well aware of the constant balancing act required to ensure alignment between the agencies, not to mention the juggling required for the three disparate industry groups.  

  

My interest was ensuring I could harness Elizabeth’s knowledge of RMS’ relationship and dealings with the government agency and industry players to ensure we had pre-emptive and strategically aligned communications.  Working with Elizabeth and her team we were able to design and develop a comprehensive industry engagement campaign, aligned to what the different players needed to know at the right time. This work provided the foundation for what would become the NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner’s Engagement and Education function.  

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Elizabeth often displayed a no-nonsense approach to solving problems be it within our agencies or with the industry stakeholders by being upfront and direct, but also understanding in a way that could disarm and speed up the negotiating process.

 

Because of our ability to wrap our arms around all the agencies, engage in direct but empathetic way with the industry we were able to draft, consult, lodge and pass an entire new Act of Parliament in six months and establish initial operations in the new statutory agency within eight months. 

 

This was despite the constantly shifting political and reputational landscape we found ourselves in. I look back on the reforms and the working relationships we built then with pride, and hope I get to work with Elizabeth again sometime in the near future.