Client: Noosa Shire Council State: QLD AEC was commissioned to assist Council in determining the financial and pricing implications of the 2020/21 budget using AEC's proprietary licensed waste lifecycle costing and pricing model. AEC developed the applicable utility charges and disposal fees for the 2020/21 budget in conjunction with Council using the model, ensuring ongoing financial sustainability of the business unit. Assistance was also provided on other issues associated with the waste business, including the financial implications associated with reduced services during the Covid-19 lockdown period and preparation of a submission to the Queensland Government waste legislation reform Regulatory Impact Statement.

Client: City of Sydney State: NSW AEC was engaged to assist Mako (engaged by City of Sydney) in carrying out an urban design review of development options at the Waterloo Estate. AEC’s input was delivered in two workshops, (1) to provide feedback following a critique of the suggested assumptions and make recommendations as necessary and (2) a review of the revised assumptions of the feasibility model.

Client: Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads State: QLD The private property towing reforms were introduced on 16 April 2018 to improve the accountability of the towing industry and to provide protection to Queensland motorists. The Queensland Government engaged with key stakeholders and communities via the Your say on Queensland’s Tow Truck Scheme discussion paper and online survey was published on the Get Involved website. AEC reported on the results obtained from the website with analysis undertaken using SPSS and Q Professional.

Client: Aqwest State: WA Aqwest (Bunbury Water Corporation) commissions AEC for an annual customer survey (since 2014) to assess the satisfaction with services it provides and to produce key performance indicators for Aqwest’s annual reporting processes. The primary objective of the Customer Survey is to establish customer and community satisfaction with a range of Aqwest water services and establish reason for any low satisfaction areas. Customers are engaged via CATI and online survey and reporting is inclusive of trend analysis over time.

Client: Heavy Vehicle Industry Association State: QLD The Brisbane Truck Show is held biennially at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre. The event attracts approximately 40,000 attendees and approximately 250 exhibitors. AEC has been undertaking research with patrons and exhibitors of the Brisbane Truck Show since 2011. The objectives of the study were to: • Determine the economic impact of the show; • Investigate the effectiveness of the advertising campaign; • Ascertain attendee and exhibitor satisfaction with the show; and • Obtain a demographic profile of the attendees. On average, each time AEC has obtained over 400 intercept surveys from attendees at the Show over a course of 3 – 4 days resulting in a confidence interval of +/- 4.77. Additionally, a total of 239 emails were sent soliciting participation to a web-based survey and 138 surveys were collected from exhibitors. Expenditure data from visitors, exhibitors and Heavy Vehicle Industry Association were used in Input-Output models specific to the Queensland economy to estimate the direct and indirect impacts to the state economy. The findings of these reports are used to assist with promotion of the event both interstate and overseas.

Client: Stadium Queensland State: QLD Stadiums Queensland (SQ) is a statutory body established under the Major Sports Facilities Act 2001 and is charged with the management of major facilities declared under Queensland Government regulation as being venues having the capacity to stage national or international sports events and to deliver recreation and entertainment experiences. Of the nine (9) venues managed by SQ, customer research has been commissioned for three key stakeholder groups (customers/patrons, members, and hirers) across six key venues including The Suncorp Stadium, The Gabba, 1300SMILES Stadium, the Cbus Super Stadium, the Sleeman Sports Complex, and the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre. Over four years, AEC will undertake more than 15,000 intercept and online surveys with spectators, members and hirers, stakeholder consultations and focus group sessions and produce 24 trend analysis reports inclusive of segmentation analysis. The four-year contract term includes delivering on strategic insights to benchmark stakeholder satisfaction overall and across key service areas (including identifying key and sub-drivers of satisfaction and a ranked action plan), retention and to track these KPIs over time, formal presentation of the results as well as infographic reporting as requested by SQ.

Client: Rural City of Wangaratta State: VIC Under the National Competition Policy, local government owned significant businesses must ensure that they do not enjoy any competitive advantage simply because they are publicly owned. Significant businesses are ones that are large in comparison to the market in which they operate or have the ability to influence or competitively impact the market. Examples can include Livestock Exchanges, Child Care Centres, Aquatic and Leisure Centres in fact any business activity that charges a fee for use. If a business activity is deemed to be a significant business, full cost pricing principles must be applied. Complaints about unfair pricing are common and can be made against local government owned businesses, potentially resulting in action being taken by State Governments. A review of the Wangaratta Livestock Exchange identified that while the activity is a business activity for the purposes of competitive neutrality legislation, it was not a significant business due to its share of the market and its inability to influence and impact that market. The findings of the review were reviewed by Better Regulation Victoria and found to be logical based on the evidence gathered.

Client: Liverpool City Council State: NSW In 2018 AEC updated Liverpool City Council’s updated Economic Development Strategy, Investment Profile and Economic Profile documentation. Since the release of these documents, State government strategies identified two additional industry sectors (Agribusiness and Defence) which are opportunities for New South Wales as a whole. Council engaged AEC to expand Council’s industry profiling to include these industries. AEC focused on providing an understanding of the existing industry within the Liverpool LGA as well as potential businesses in these industries’ supply chains. The industry profiles included: Discussion of the potential implications for the local region of these two sectors. Estimation of employment and Gross Vale Add in these sectors. Identification of local businesses who are able support the future development of these sectors. Comparison of the local industry to that of South West subregion, Western Sydney, Sydney SD and New South Wales. Summarise the outcomes for the project in a document which is appropriate for dissemination to media.

Client: Honeycombes Property Group State: QLD AEC was engaged by Honeycombes to undertake an update of the economic impact assessment previously conducted by AEC. The project will replace the current Breakwater Terminal to facilitate an integrated tourism experience for North Queensland. It will include expanded ferry capacity, retail and commercial premises, education office accommodation, a four and a half star hotel, expanded car parking, a new long haul and local bus hub and public spaces.

Client: Aqwest State: QLD Aqwest has been servicing the people of Bunbury for over 100 years and is responsible for the delivery of high quality and sustainable water services to approximately 17,000 properties in the City of Bunbury. Aqwest commissioned an Employee Engagement Survey (EES) to measure employee perceptions of leadership, relationships, motivation, engagement, and overall satisfaction with Aqwest as an employer. Results from the survey will provide insights into motivating and engage staff to perform their best at work each day. More specifically, the study objectives included: Employee profile including age, gender and length and tenure at Aqwest. Perceptions across various aspects including strategy and leadership, communication, innovation and growth, work and life balance, and working environment at Aqwest. Satisfaction with Aqwest as employer, overall job satisfaction and recommending Aqwest as an employer. Quantitative online research methodology was adopted to appropriately target employees across various divisions and involved the following processes: Communication plan: to engage with employees prior to AEC approaching them. Reminder emails: three (3) reminder emails over a period of three weeks to boost response rates. Online surveys: online surveys administered with employees achieving a 95% response rate. Source: Shutterstock

Client: Grassroots Connections Australia Pty Ltd State: QLD This project involved a holistic functional review of the efficiency and effectiveness of Fraser Coast Regional Council's operational footprint under current and future anticipated infrastructure and service demands. The purpose of the project was to facilitate the determination of the optimal operational footprint for the delivery of Councils services while maximising operational collaboration, by identifying the best fit location of service areas and determining future resourcing requirements at each of these locations. The project objective was to locate and link Council's operational resources in the best way possible to serve the community as it continues to grow and to provide essential input into building design decisions for new administration centres in Hervey Bay and Maryborough. In addition to working as a key partner in the operational footprint review, AEC was also commissioned to undertake an assessment of Council's future service demands to determine potential resourcing implications across key office and facility locations by function focussing on the physical facilities and services provided to the community.

Client: Southern Downs Regional Council State: QLD The Southern Downs region of Queensland is currently experiencing a severe drought which is causing significant strain on the regions water supplies. In 2012 the Queensland Government announced the repeal of the Mandatory Parts (MP) 4.2 and 4.3 in the Queensland Government Development Codes which related to the requirement for water tanks and other water saving devices to be provided with new houses and new commercial and industrial buildings. Given the continuing severe drought conditions, Council made an application to the Minister of Housing and Public Works to apply MP 4.2 and 4.3 to the Southern Downs regions reticulated town water supply areas, for which a cost benefit analysis outlining the evidence base for opting into mandatory installation of water tanks was required. AEC was engaged to undertake a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to explore the merits of opting in to MP 4.2 and MP 4.3. The CBA has been conducted in line with Queensland and Australian Government guidelines, examining the stream of socio-economic costs and benefits anticipated from the project. AEC also developed projections of uptake of rainwater tanks, and provided a comprehensive cost comparison analysis for providing water to customers within the Southern Downs LGA on a per kilolitre (kL) basis between identified alternative water supply options.