Purpose

Lead political and government engagement for AirTrunk's priority Australian development projects, working upstream with project, planning and community teams to identify political risks and opportunities, build stakeholder support and intervene early to maximise project delivery certainty.

Core responsibilities

Project political strategy

• Embed GR early in priority project development and approval processes.

• Develop and maintain a political strategy for each priority project.

• Identify government dependencies, decision points, risks and opportunities.

Political risk and stakeholder management

• Map critical political and government stakeholders for priority projects.

• Maintain relationships with key state and federal stakeholders.

• Monitor political sentiment and assess project political health.

• Develop strategies to build informed political support ahead of critical decisions.

Project enablement and escalation

• Partner with Development, Planning, Community, Legal and other teams to identify and resolve government barriers.

• Lead government and political engagement on material project issues.

• Develop escalation strategies where normal pathways are delayed or at risk.

• Recommend when and how senior executive or ministerial intervention should be deployed.

Government and community coordination

• Work closely with Community & Social Impact to align political and community engagement.

• Ensure local MPs and other relevant stakeholders understand project benefits, commitments and community outcomes.

• Support consistent external messaging across project and corporate teams.

Intelligence and reporting

• Provide political intelligence relevant to priority projects and the broader Australian operating environment.

• Maintain concise project political-health assessments and emerging-risk updates.

• Feed material intelligence and project developments into GRPP Executive Intelligence.

Cross-functional / portfolio contribution

• Participate in relevant project governance forums and development planning.

• Support broader Australian GRPP priorities and other markets when required.

• Work with policy colleagues to ensure project experience informs enduring AirTrunk policy positions.

What success looks like

• Priority projects have a clear political strategy from early development through approval.

• Critical stakeholders are identified and engaged before intervention is required.

• Emerging political risks are identified early enough to influence the outcome.

• Government barriers are actively managed and escalated before they become material delivery risks.

• Project teams understand the political environment and know when GRPP needs to intervene.

• Senior executives are deployed selectively where their intervention can materially change the outcome.

• Priority projects move through government with greater certainty, fewer surprises and clearer escalation pathways.