Martin Payne Practitioner in Residence Public Lecture and Panel Discussion: Implementing wellbeing outcomes in the NSW planning system

The draft Sydney Plan sets out how the NSW Government will address growth in Sydney over the next 20 years. But is there more we need to discuss? Amongst the urgency of the housing crisis, we need a meaningful dialogue about the purpose of planning, and the tools planners need to deliver wellbeing outcomes in the built environment.

Join us on 21st April 2026 for the launch of new research by ‘Lucy Band – Martin Payne Practitioner-in-Residence’ exploring wellbeing outcomes in planning and a panel discussion with industry leaders – including Sue Weatherley, NSW PIA President, Prof Susan Thompson, UNSW, Georgina Blix, Blix Architecture and Russell Peake, Northern Beaches Council.

Event Details

Event Date: Tuesday, April 21

Event Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Reception Drinks: 6:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Venue: Lecture Room 1, Level 17, 133 Castlereagh St, The University of Sydney CBD Campus

Speaker Bios

Lucy Band

Lucy is a University of Sydney alumni and an experienced planning and social impact professional who has contributed to city shaping projects in Australia and the UK. In 2025 Lucy completed the Martin Payne Practitioner-in-Residence program with the Henry Halloran Urban and Regional Research Initiative. Catalysed by the release of Australia’s first Wellbeing Framework, Lucy’s research explores wellbeing within the planning system in NSW. While the links between the built environment and wellbeing are well established, Lucy’s research focuses on implementation challenges, and the tools planners need to move from aspiration to action.

Sue Weatherley MPIA (Fellow)

Sue is the PIA NSW President, a passionate urban planner and senior local government executive with over 30 years of experience in senior local government executive planning roles in NSW and QLD, including Townsville, Ryde, Parramatta and Georges River.

Sue was on the NSW Architect Registration Board from 2014 to 2020, was the Chair of the 200Planning Task Force for Committee for Sydney and is now on the Local Government Committee for IPART.

Her contribution to Local Government has been twice recognised, in 2012 and 2016, as the recipient of the Minister’s Award for women in local government. In November 2018, Planning Institute of Australia NSW (PIA) named Sue the Planner of the Year at its annual excellence awards. Sue is also a fellow of PIA.

Susan Thompson MPIA (Fellow)

Susan Thompson is Professor of Planning, School of the Built Environment, and inaugural Life Fellow City Futures Research Centre, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, UNSW Sydney. Susan’s research, teaching and scholarship focuses on the relationship between people and place, building understandings about the ways in which places can best support diverse communities. Susan is one of the first urban planners in Australia to advocate for the importance of healthy built environments and has made significant contributions to policy, education and research in this transdisciplinary field. In 2015 Susan was awarded the Sidney Luker Memorial Medal for her contribution to progressing healthy planning.

Georgina Blix

Georgina Blix is the Director of Blix Architecture, a research-led design studio with a focus on design for wellbeing. In 2025 she released her Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship research based on travels around the world exploring how we can design for wellbeing and measure it in housing. Her research covers intergenerational design, design for trauma and how to improve housing for social connection. This was launched in July 2025 in Australia with the NSW Minister for Housing and Mental Health and the NSW Commissioner for Mental Health. As a practising Architect and pracademic Georgina has taught at Sydney University, been published in Bulletin Magazine, regularly speaks at conferences, and has co-authored research into wellbeing with Sydney University.

Russell Peake

Russell is the Manager Social Planning and Services with Northern Beaches Council responsible for the delivery of social sustainability strategy, action plans, advice, and advocacy. With 14 years experience in local government working across children services, community development, emergency management, transformation project delivery, strategy, and performance and for the last 5 years strategic social planning, Russell has a broad knowledge of the strengths and potential for local government to positively influence, measure, and monitor community wellbeing outcomes.