Tanya’s sights set on strengthening community

Tanya Scicluna had dreamed of finding a role on the Mornington Peninsula to use her local government expertise and is thrilled to have been appointed Mornington Peninsula Shire’s new director of Community Strengthening.

“We are long-time visitors to the Peninsula and are looking to relocate the family in the future,” Tanya says. For now, she does the daily commute from her home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and is immersing herself in getting to know all the different community stakeholders in the Shire.

Tanya brings extensive experience working at a senior level in a wide range of community services in local government – most recently as Connected Communities director with Knox City Council – State Government and the community sector.

“I feel very lucky to be part of the Mornington Peninsula team,” she says. “Director of Community Strengthening is a large portfolio covering all elements of the community from children and families, maternal child health services, all the age cohorts right through to older people. It touches on diversity, community partnerships, compliance, environmental health functions, local business, tourism and customer service. I’m curious about what’s happening and what’s not and why.”

Tanya loves having worked in local government for more than 20 years. “You’re so involved at so many levels with the community. One day I could be working with young people and then a recreation group, or a group of seniors. Also, I’m really interested in the politics of how local government works and supporting the council with providing the best advice because they’re making decisions on behalf of the community. I’m always looking at how do we provide frank and fearless, thoughtful advice to drive good decisions and get great outcomes. The reality is local government can’t do everything. It’s not possible. But we can create opportunities by working with other partners and building the community’s capacity to do things.”

Tanya is looking forward to meeting as many people from as many sections of the community as possible. She values the diversity of people and places on the Peninsula.

“There’s a really interesting mix of coastal, rural, farmland and metro areas, which is really different to any other municipality, and that drew me in as well.”