Customer and Community Reference Group​

CCRG purpose and functions

The CCRG works with Sydney Water at a strategic level to achieve the highest possible levels of customer focus within our practices. It supports Sydney Water to ensure that our business decisions, as set out in our strategy, enterprise plan and regulatory submissions, are in the best interests of all Sydney Water customers and the community, and are shaped by them.​

The functions of the CCRG are to:​

• provide direct feedback on existing customer service delivery and emerging customer issues and make recommendations​
• contribute to and help shape Sydney Water's customer engagement plan to ensure that customers are engaged, and their preferences reflected appropriately
• assist Sydney Water in identifying and engaging hard-to-reach customer groups
• ensure Sydney Water provides a range of genuine, understandable and realistic options to customers on business plan proposals​
• provide strategic input into Sydney Water's strategy, enterprise plan and regulatory submissions, and engage with the Sydney Water Executive on these issues​
• provide an assessment of the quality and the extent of customer engagement and the degree to which Sydney Water's strategic plans and regulatory submissions reflect this.

The CCRG is not a decision-making committee; it is an advisory group. Key topics for discussion will include our Price proposal, Strategic Planning and Customer Engagement.​

The CCRG does not replace our extensive research and engagement with customers, including our current Our Water, Our Voice program. 

Meeting agendas, minutes and actions

You can find out more about the CCRG meetings through the meeting agenda, minutes and actions below.

CCRG Independent Chair Annual Report

You can find out more about the CCRG through the first Independent Chair Annual Report:

• November 2022 - November 2023

CCRG membership

The CCRG is chaired independently by Abigail Goldberg. Abigail is an experienced Independent Chair, Non-executive director and CEO with experience across the private and government sectors.​

CCRG Members bring broad customer and community perspectives from:​

• First Nations​

• Culturally and linguistically diverse communities​

• Aged / Youth​

• Disability​

• Social advocacy​

• Customer/consumer advocacy​

• Financial hardship​

• Regional (Illawarra, Western Sydney)​

• Environment​

• Local government​

• Business ​

• Developers

Abigail Goldberg – Independent Chair, Sydney Water CCRG

M Business Administration (Executive), M Urban Design, BSc Urban and Regional Planning (Hons) FAICD FPIA MRTPI

Abigail Goldberg is a Chair, Non-Executive Director, Commissioner and CEO who works across the private and Government sectors. She specialises in the infrastructure, property, transport, resources (including water), tourism and planning sectors.

Abigail chairs the Advisory Board for Water Infrastructure NSW as well as the Sydney Central City Planning Panel and the City of Sydney Local Planning Panel. She also chairs a number of Community Consultative Committees and Audit and Risk Committees, and is a Non-Executive Director of several companies. Abigail is a senior Gateway Reviewer for NSW Treasury, Infrastructure NSW, Schools Infrastructure NSW and the EPA NSW. She completed the maximum term as a Member of the independent NSW Planning Assessment Commission in 2012.

Anna Bacik – Community Representative

BA, MPASR, MCouns

Anna is an experienced executive with over 20 years of experience in social policy and leadership in the government and non-government sectors. Her experience includes working for regulatory and statutory bodies, central agencies, human services, health organisations and for community services and organisations in Southern NSW. 

Anna has previously served on a range of committees and advisory groups. Her recent representation for Community Industry Group included the Coordinare Community Advisory Committee, the BlueScope Community Consultative and a number of local bodies in the southern region.

Narelle Brown – Community Representative

Narelle Brown brings valuable expertise in consumer engagement and financial counselling across various roles, her extensive experience focusing on process improvement and consumer education.

Her broad experience across the energy and water Industry has seen her develop and implement an inaugural retailer hardship program. In her most recent role in Community Engagement with the Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW (15 years), she has implemented innovative approaches to reaching vulnerable consumers experiencing energy and water issues, including ‘Bring Your Bills’ days and delivering educational presentations. She developed strategic partnerships with government, community agencies and consumer groups to improve awareness and education and build valuable networks. The program received an independent review as best practice.

As a financial counsellor/ co-ordinator for 18 years, Narelle held major roles including President and Vice President of the NSW Financial Counsellors Association NSW.  

Steven Collins – Community Representative

Steven is a Pitta Pitta man, whose traditional lands span a region in Far Western Central Queensland, and is a descendant of the Stolen Generations, with an extensive career in stakeholder engagement, project management, strategic planning, governance and First Nations issues. Steven grew up in a single parent environment, with his mother suffering severe mental health issues and his sister living with disability, which has motivated him in pursuit of better outcomes for the socially disadvantaged.

Steven is currently serving as the first Aboriginal Liaison Officer for the Parliament of NSW. His role is pivotal in breaking down barriers that have traditionally been in place for Aboriginal people seeking to understand, access and engage with the Parliament of NSW.

Steven’s key strength is stakeholder management, where he has a track record in facilitating complex discussions to achieve positive outcomes for all parties involved. 

He has been Advisor to several State Government Ministers and has worked closely with senior government officers, other Ministers and Members of Parliament in pursuit of social policy reform across Aboriginal affairs, disability services, domestic and family violence, and youth.

Inaara Jindani – Community Representative

M. Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development, University of Newcastle
B. City Planning (Hons), University of New South Wales

Inaara has a professional background in Urban Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Advisory within all levels of Government, the private sector and the United Nations, progressing the pillars of sustainability and resilience in cities globally.

Inaara also brings 8 years of advisory experience within Government and Non-Governmental organisations, pursuing organisational and public policy outcomes with consideration to underrepresented groups including young people, women, and CALD communities. Through the CCRG, Inaara seeks to foster diverse considerations for emerging and future generations within Sydney Water's operations.

In 2022, Inaara was named a Young Woman to Watch in International Affairs by Young Australians in International Affairs for her community and industry involvement.

Mary Karras – Representative for Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW

Mary Karras is a passionate believer in the principles of multiculturalism. Throughout her career she has been instrumental in ensuring that multicultural policies, programs and services are respected and valued in culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse communities across Sydney and the broader NSW State.

In her current role as Chief Executive Officer of the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW Mary works closely with the Board of Management and the Members’ Forum to strengthen its mission and vision through her strategic thinking, executive leadership and operational management.

Both professionally and personally, Mary brings a wealth of learnings and experiences in her work with diverse communities that encompasses energy, aged care reforms, disability inclusion, health literacy, education, domestic and family violence, environment sustainability, and housing and tenancies to name a few.

Leigh Martin – Representative for the Total Environment Centre

BSc (Hons), PhD

Leigh is an environmental scientist who has been an academic at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) over 10 years. His research interests include invasive species, urban ecology and conservation of reptiles and amphibians.

Leigh brings a wealth of experience in environmental management and joins the CCRG as a representative of the environmental NGO Total Environment Centre (TEC) of which he is a current Management Committee member and former employee.

Prior to joining UTS, Leigh worked for over 15 years as an environmental campaigner at TEC. As part of this role he worked extensively on urban and rural water management including pricing and regulation.

Bruce McClelland – Representative for Business Western Sydney

Bruce has been with Business Western Sydney for 8 years, following extensive commercial experience developing both transactional and long-term multi-year projects with private enterprise clients, state and local government agencies, across the finance sector, professional services, IT and telecommunications, servicing some of Australia’s largest commercial and government clients. He is focused on delivering opportunity and value to Business Western Sydney's members' regional engagement activities.

Douglas McCloskey – Representative for Public Interest Advocacy Centre

Douglas has been part of the Energy and Water team at PIAC since May 2018, leading it as Program Director since March 2022. He has expertise across policy, regulation and community engagement in energy and water and has a particular focus on issues impacting vulnerable NSW households, fair and affordable access to energy and water, access to sustainable technology and services, and advocating for measures to make essential service delivery more equitable and affordable.
 
Douglas has more 15 years of experience across policy, government, and community and social service advocacy, and has worked and volunteered in hospitality, sustainable agriculture and youth development both in Australia and across Europe.

Between 2015 and 2018 he was a Policy Officer for the NSW Council of Social Service, with responsibility for policy and advocacy across the housing, disability, planning, essential services and transport. 

Stephen McMahon – Representative for NSW Urban Development Institute of Australia

MA FPIA

Stephen is a recognised, accomplished planning and urban development professional with 30 years broad ranging experience and expertise in the establishment and management of development projects and teams from planning, acquisition, design, marketing through to sale and delivery.

Stephen has recently returned to providing development advisory services following 9 years as The General Manager of Development for 2 land development companies in Western Sydney where he undertook a range of land development projects in Western Sydney and regional NSW. Earlier experience includes the London Docklands Development Corporation and NSW Olympic Coordination Authority. Stephen also teaches development feasibility part-time at the UNSW.

Donna Rogers – Representative for Community Industry Group

Drawing upon a wealth of experience accumulated over 20 years within NGOs and NFPs across the Illawarra/Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands region, Donna possesses extensive expertise spanning diverse sectors. Her professional background encompasses education, child and family services, child protection, as well as housing and homelessness. Throughout her career, she demonstrated exceptional management skills in overseeing various programs and services.

Donna currently holds the position of Policy and Project Officer at Community Industry Group (CI Group) which has been the regional peak body and authoritative voice of community services in Southern New South Wales for over 30 years. Specialising in early intervention and prevention, Donna is an integral part of a team of specialists dedicated to supporting community services in delivering innovative and high-quality solutions to addressing disadvantage and vulnerability in local communities. Operating within a dynamic and ever-evolving market, characterised by demanding expectations from both consumers and policy makers, Donna and the team actively engage in influential discussions and decision-making processes. Through their efforts, they ensure that the needs and interests of community service organisations are effectively represented and advocated for. 

Graham Turner – Representative for Council on the Ageing NSW

B.Sc. (Hons I) App. Sci. UNSW
M.Env. Stud., UNSW

Graham has extensive experience as an applied geographer and environmental scientist. After teaching physical and economic geography at University of NSW, he then spent over 25 years in NSW planning and environmental agencies, fulfilling professional roles in town planning, environmental planning, protection and management, and climate change. He also has comprehensive understanding and experience in the application of technologies including remote sensing and GIS.

Graham represents COTA (Council on the Ageing NSW). He advocates for older Australians, and is particularly keen to ensure the contemporary and emerging issues and concerns of socially or economically disadvantaged seniors in the community are considered and addressed.

Clr Ross Williams – Representative for the NSW local government association (Local Government NSW)

BAppSc, MSc Qual (Biotech), GAICD, FAICD, RegPM CPPD, MAIPM, Emeritus Mayor

Ross was an executive professional with 38 years of experience in Government including: sustainability, natural resource management and environmental protection. Ross has also worked in the private sector driving initiatives in the waste management sector and as a consultant specialising in compliance, project, and environmental management.

Ross brings experience as a non-executive director serving on a number of Australian not-for-profit boards, councils and advisory committees. 

Ross represents the NSW local government association Local Government NSW. This allows LG NSW to engage on emerging policies and challenges, as they affect community-based programs and operational outcomes at a local community level.