David Collins
David has 25 years experience in the evaluation of agricultural research and development investments.
Drew Collins
Drew has 25 years experience in natural resource and environmental policy development and analysis.
Helen Betts O’Shea
Helen has 15 years experience in economic and financial analysis of government policies.
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David Collins
David has had over 25 years experience in the evaluation of agricultural research and development investments. He is a competent financial and strategic planner and has been responsible for many assignments involving the cost benefit analysis of proposed and developed technologies by state and federal government agencies as well as Australian Research and Development Corporations. David has also assisted many clients (including the Australian Wool Innovation, Australian Pork limited, Dairy Australia, Meat Research Corporation, Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, Cotton Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO) develop and implement in-house performance and evaluation processes.
David brings considerable skills and experience in econometric modelling, statistical survey design and analysis, financial analysis and industry liaison. David has an extensive knowledge of agricultural management practices, including those aimed at protecting the resource base. David also has considerable experience in the areas of benefit-cost analysis, investment evaluation and strategic planning, successfully combining economic, scientific and environmental disciplines.
David has also developed and presented applied courses on economic and environmental evaluation and market-based instruments to managers drawn from across the Victorian and NSW governments. Over recent years, David has led a number of BDA Group assignments relating to economic and environmental evaluation, including:
- Economic feasibility of different water sourcing strategies for securing water for environmental flows in Victorian river basins;
- Development of water purchasing and trading strategies for the NSW Riverbank portfolio;
- Policy options for woodheaters in the Sydney metropolitan area;
- Water trading strategies to meet South Australia’s commitment under the Murray Darling Basin water initiatives;
- Triple bottom line evaluation of specific rural research projects – including dairy, cotton, wool, meat, pork and grape and wine industries; and
- Environmental impacts of economic development in Australia and the Pacific.
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Drew Collins
Drew has had 25 years experience in natural resource and environmental policy development and analysis, including in the areas of natural resource management, pollution tax and trading schemes, water pricing and allocation, and the design of market instruments for environmental management. He has published research into economic frameworks for natural resource management and pricing, and the efficiency of alternative public policy responses across a range of resource issues.
Drew joined BDA Group as a Partner in 2001 and has led many of the BDA Group assignments investigating reforms in environmental management and public policy applicable to the water, land resource, energy and waste industries. Drew is also regularly engaged in advisory roles for government and the private sector. His appointments include membership of the Market Based Instruments Selection Advisory Committee under the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality; Chair of the MDBC’s Independent Social and Economic Reference Panel to support the Living Murray Program; membership of the Independent Expert Panel advising Sydney Water Corporation’s Desalination Planning Study membership of the Panel established by the NSW Minister for Planning to undertake an independent inquiry into the Impacts of underground coal mining on natural features in the Southern Coalfields.
Prior to joining BDA Group, Drew held the positions of Manager Natural Resource Economics Branch at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and Executive Director, Economics and Environmental Reporting at the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (NSW EPA).
As Executive Director, Economics and Environmental Reporting with the NSW EPA (1996 – 2001), he was responsible for directly leading a number of regulatory reform processes, undertaking a broad range of economic assessments of environmental policy and regulations, preparing State of the Environment Reports, guidelines for corporate environmental reporting and initiating EPA’s own Triple Bottom Line report.
Drew supervised the development and successful implementation of a comprehensive pollution tax regime – Load Based Licensing – which won a NSW Premier’s award, being recognised as the most comprehensive and sophisticated pollution tax regime in the world. Drew also oversaw the development, refinement and implementation of emission trading schemes including the Hunter River Salinity Trading Scheme and a Nutrient trading scheme on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River. Drew was also responsible for Cost Benefit assessment of EPA policies, regulations and guidelines, including interim water quality objectives for NSW waters and EPA input into options for the use of market instruments under the State’s Salinity Management Strategy. He also fostered the development of non-market valuation methods and promotion of ‘triple bottom line’ reporting across the NSW public sector and by corporate and community groups. To this end, he oversaw the refinement of the EPA’s environmental valuation (ENVALUE) database and its development as a web-based tool.
Drew held a range of positions with ABARE, and between 1994 and 1996 held the position of Manager, Natural Resource Economics Branch (SES 1). At ABARE he led research into public policy issues facing the use of Australia’s natural resources – their efficient allocation, utilisation, pricing and the evaluation of constraints imposed upon the agricultural resource base. Studies included water industry policy (pricing, allocation, structural adjustment); the sustainability of farming systems; the creation of water, forestry, fishery & environmental property rights; economic instruments for the management of salinity and nutrients and benefit-cost analysis of natural resource management plans.
Drew has published a number of papers on the use of economic instruments across a range of natural resource and environmental issues and presented his experiences with economic instruments in environmental regulation at a range of professional forums in Australia and internationally.
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Helen Betts O’Shea
Helen has over 15 years experience in economic and financial analysis of government policies, development and implementation of market based instruments for environment protection. Helen’s key project areas with BDA Group have been economic analysis and policy development relating to pollution and waste management.
Helen’s projects include investigations and development of potential market based instruments to manage pollution in Adelaide’s Coastal Waters; the Swan-Canning Catchment; the Peel Harvey Catchment and Vasse Geographe catchments; the lower Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment; Moreton Bay; and the SA Port Waterways.
Helen has worked on projects evaluating environmental licence fee reforms in various States including opportunities to improve environmental licensing and fee structures in Victoria under the Trade Waste Review; reforms to improve water quality and the uptake of water recycling in Queensland; and reforms to the South Australian EPA Licence Fee Structure.
Waste projects Helen has worked on include an assessment of the full costs of landfill disposal in Australia, evaluation of the economic cost of container deposit legislation in the Northern Territory, and a national Beverage Container Investigation involving an assessment of potential options for national measures, including container deposit legislation. Helen has also worked on the triple bottom line analyses of the ACT Government’s No Waste by 2010 Strategy; economic mechanisms under the National Packaging Covenant; alternative container deposit schemes for Western Australia; and SA’s Waste Strategy 2005 – 2010.
As Project Manager South Creek Pilot Nutrient Trading Scheme, NSW EPA (2001 – 2002) Helen managed the development of a nutrient trading scheme involving diffuse sources of nutrient pollution. The scheme was the first scheme to be trialed under the NSW Government’s initiative on Green Offsets for Sustainable Development. Helen also managed the development of a web-based diffuse water pollution estimator providing estimates of pollution loads from new development to support the implementation of offset schemes to address water pollution.
As Project Manager Diffuse Water Pollution, NSW EPA (2000 – 2001) Helen led the development of a strategy for the EPA to contribute to managing diffuse sources of water pollution in NSW. In this position Helen also developed detailed proposals for innovative economic tools that could be used in NSW to protect the environment while supporting economic development.
As Manager Economic Evaluation, NSW EPA (1996 – 2000) Helen managed a team of economists and economic consultants analysing the economic impacts of environmental legislation, regulations and policy in NSW. The policies covered areas like water, air and noise pollution as well as waste management, chemicals and radiation control. This included a suite of assessments to support public consultation on Environmental Flow and Water Quality Targets for NSW Rivers, guidelines developed under the National Water Quality Management Strategy and various assessments of EPA regulations affecting the NSW irrigation sector.
