Alumni News

Earlier this year GSC Old Scholar, Jessica Porter (nee Mowatt) Class of 2000 graduated from UniSA with her Doctoral Degree. Recently, Jessica’s research was recognised by winning the Planning Institute of Australia (SA Division) Award for Planning Excellence – Planning Research. The annual PIA Awards for Planning Excellence demonstrate leading practice, leadership and achievement in planning and the planning profession. The Planning Research award is awarded for a substantial piece of planning research which makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding of contemporary issues relating to planning in Australia.

Jessica’s research titled  ‘Local government and affordable housing in non-metropolitan Australia: an analytics of government’, examined the policy measures that have been developed by state governments to boost the supply of affordable housing in Australian regional cities and investigated how governance arrangements at the state and local government levels shape affordable housing policy outcomes.

Jessica will now represent South Australia in the Planning Research category, at the National Awards for Planning Excellence in May 2022. Good luck Dr Porter!