John Comrie has a background in economics (B Ec) and accounting (FCPA). Early in his career he worked with a large water authority and his work focussed on long-run costs of service delivery. He went to work in local government in Australia over 30 years ago and it was apparent that it too delivered many of its services through long-lived infrastructure. He became involved in the introduction of accrual accounting to local government in the 1990’s. A decade later he headed the SA Office Of Local Government and when there championed the requirement for SA local governments to prepare long-term financial plans and asset management plans. Other Australian states all subsequently followed. He has consulted on local government financial sustainability related matters for the past 15 years.