Region. Chair of local health network

Stephen Leader, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, will chair the governing council of the Western Sydney Local Health Network He is the chair of one of 18 networks in NSW which will come into being on January 2011. The networks are a key plank of health reforms agreed with the commonwealth in April 2010, and will have their own budgets, management and accountabilities. The networks will be administered by a CEO as well as a governing council that includes clinicians, health and health care management experts and community representatives. Recruitment of CEOs will start shortly.

North Ryde. Tenants wanted for defence hub

The NSW Office of Defence is calling for expressions of interest from defence-based business in NSW to become tenants in the government’s new $50 million high-tech defence hub, at Macquarie Park, which is part of a $75 million initiative to boost the state’s defence industry, “The NSW government’s commitment is for NSW to secure 30 per cent of Australia’s in-country defence spend by 2019. We aim to create more than 1,500 new jobs in defence-related industries by 2013,” said NSW Treasurer and Minister for State and Regional Development, Eric Roozendaal.