Women make up 43 per cent of Lake Macquarie City Council's workforce, which is a wonderful reflection on the growing representation of women in local government. We are also very lucky to have a number of women in leadership roles, who are great ambassadors for our organisation, our community and our female workforce. In a traditionally male dominated industry, I think this shows the diversity and uniqueness of local government and the drive for equality in our communities.

This year our award nominees include council's CEO Morven Cameron, Renee Keir who works in our customer service centre and Jacqui Hemsley who is manager of arts, culture and tourism.

All these women should be very proud of what they have achieved in their roles with council. We are a progressive organisation and their work is helping make some incredible improvements to become more efficient, grow our visitor economy, and make sure that you, our customers, are at the centre of everything we do.

Good luck to our three special nominees for the Minister's Awards for Women in Local Government.

Fingers crossed, I can share our successful 'award winners' when they take out the prize at the awards this week.

Downer's new $5 million asphalt plant in Teralba opens this week following a range of upgrades to improve the sustainability and innovation of the facility.

The plant is now one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in Australia and will see the supply of sustainable pavement solutions to Lake Macquarie and across the Hunter region.

It is great that local organisations, like Downer, share our sustainability goals.