City’s innovation and leadership recognised at 2025 LG Professionals WA Honour Awards
From artificial intelligence to Auslan Storytime, the City of Stirling has been recognised for two contrasting projects that share a common theme of leadership in the local government sector.
LG Professionals WA held their annual 2025 Honour Awards at Crown Perth on Wednesday night, recognising the outstanding contributions of local governments and their officers.
The City won the Partnerships and Collaboration Award for its Auslan Storytime program, which provides free storytelling sessions led by a Deaf presenter in Auslan with support from an interpreter.
The first ongoing delivery of such a program in the state, the City partnered with Deaf Connect to bring it to Western Australia, supported by funding from the State Library of WA’s Better Beginnings program.
The pilot program at Stirling Libraries – Osborne was launched in June 2025 and has been a resounding success, making early literacy more accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing families.
It has created friendships, taught hearing families Auslan signs that can aid pre-verbal communication and fostered awareness and inclusion in the community.
The City also took out the Innovative Management Initiative Award for its Copilot and Data Classification Project, which has set a benchmark for responsible artificial intelligence adoption and data governance in WA's local government sector.
In 2024/25, the City ran a trial of Microsoft Copilot which validated the Australian Government’s findings of an average one-hour daily productivity gain per user, with City trial participants reporting time savings of 4.39 hours per week.
In parallel with the trial, the City developed a comprehensive data classification framework to enable the safe use of Copilot and ensure compliance with the state’s incoming privacy and responsible information sharing laws.
The City has worked closely with the WA Local Government Association, Microsoft and the Australian Government’s Digital Transformation Agency to share its findings and provide a sector-wide blueprint for a secure, compliant and AI-enabled future.
“It’s fantastic to see important and innovative work like this get the recognition it deserves,” City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin said.
“It’s often the big, shiny capital projects that win all the awards, while this sort of work flies under the radar.
“From improving efficiency and data security across the organisation to making our community a more inclusive place, these initiatives show leadership and make our City stronger.”
