Brent Harvey is off to Queensland in September, courtesy of a local government award.

Brent, who is Horowhenua District Council’s group manager, community experience and services, received an overseas manager exchange award at the recent Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards. He will travel to Lockyer Valley Regional Council, west of Brisbane, where he will be seeing how that council operates. A senior manager from Lockyer will be visiting Horowhenua in the week before.

The trip for Brent will include attendance at the LGMA (Local Government Managers Australia) conference in Brisbane; his counterpart will attend the Taituarā national conference. Taituarā represents local government professionals.

Having worked at Horowhenua District Council for 10 years, with three of those in his current role, Brent is hoping to tap into the knowledge and experiences of a council quite different from his own.

“I’m really looking forward to connecting with another council and exploring how they’re tackling some of the same challenges we face here in Horowhenua,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity to share ideas, see what’s working well elsewhere, and bring back fresh thinking that could benefit our community.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about making local government more responsive, effective and people-focused.”

He says customer experience is important to him, so he’s looking for ways to be more efficient and how Horowhenua can improve its service to customers.

Brent grew up in Kāpiti and went straight into the Navy after leaving school. After nine years there, he worked in management roles at Surf Lifesaving NZ. He then went on to work at Kāpiti Coast District Council as the recreation services manager, before moving north to Horowhenua.