Luciano Lombardo
ACHIEVEMENTS
Member of:
Board of ARIA -Canberra
Board of ComItEs-ACT
Board of the Sardinian Association
Board of the Italo-Australian Fun Run Committee
1975-1985
Postdoctoral research in organic chemistry at University College , London and at the Research School of Chemistry ANU culminating in the award of a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship
1985
Began a career in the Australian Public Service of evidence based policy work to monitor government budgeting and performance in science and innovation and provide advice to Commonwealth Government Ministers.
1991
Elected Treasurer of the Board of Villaggio Italiano Ltd, a company set up on behalf of the Italian community to build and run a retirement village in Page, ACT.
2000
Elected Secretary – Italo-Australian Club, Canberra and trustee for the Canberra Art Prize
2002
Elected Chairman of the Board - Italo-Australian Club, Canberra
Began career in policy development in the APS to assist decision making by Commonwealth Government Ministers mainly providing policy advice on Science, Climate Change and Energy
Elected founding President of ARIA - Canberra (Association for Research between Italy and Australasia ), the first Association established to support the ARIA initiative of the Italian Embassy to promote scientific collaboration between Italy and Australia .
2004
Coopted to ComItEs-ACT (an Italian Government committee) to represent the interests of Italian citizens in Australia and advise the Embassy on legal and other issues that impact on Italians overseas.
2006
Began career in Corporate Performance Reporting including reporting for government budgeting and results.
2008
Made Cavaliere (Knight) under the order “Star of Italian Solidarity” by the President of Italy for services promoting scientific and technological cooperation between Italy and Australia
PROFILE
I was born in Perth , WA from Italian background and have lived in Canberra with my wife Clara for the past 30 years. Together we have raised three children and like many of you, have coped with mortgage payments, education expenses, the rigour of family budgeting and have accessed many ACT Government services.
I have worked in many areas of the Commonwealth public service over 23 years mainly as a policy adviser both in developing policy and in assisting decision making by Ministers on national issues relating to climate change, energy, native vegetation, the National Water Initiative and science and industry innovation.
Through my work in the Canberra community I have learnt how to consult and achieve common goals taking into consideration the opinions of others. It started when my mother needed an aged care facility and I wanted to look after her welfare to the best of my ability. To do that I felt the need to get involved so I became Treasurer of Villaggio Italiano Ltd in 1991. This company was set up on behalf of the Italian community to build and run a retirement village in Page, which is now one of the most successful aged care facilities for the benefit of the whole community. I moved on to being Secretary and Chairman of the Italo-Australian Club and in that period I was part of the driving force to establish the Canberra Art Prize which benefited young talented Australians. Then as founding President of ARIA -Canberra, an incorporated association to promote scientific collaboration between Italy and Australia , I supported activities for the benefit of Australian and Italian early career researchers for which I was acknowledged in the 2008 Italian National Day honours list.
My wife and I have always thought of Canberra as a unique city because it provides the level of services of a big city while maintaining a unique relationship with the bush. Being the seat of national government and home to a high concentration of national buildings and organisations it supports a population characterised by a relatively high proportion of well to do and high achieving citizens. We are often criticised for being up there but I have met a lot of down to earth people in this city and we can be proud of the standard of living we enjoy. However, there is still a long way to go to make this statement true for all Canberrans.
There are many challenges ahead of us, principally doing our part for climate change as global citizens, an efficient transport system, achieving high quality education, providing world class health services, delivering high standard aged care, child care, affordable housing and creating career building job opportunities for our children. We need to understand how to develop the city without losing what is unique to Canberra . Like many people who like Canberra I have opinions on how to achieve these goals and I would want to take a consultative approach in representing the collective opinions of Canberrans for the betterment of Canberra .