Secretary and leadership team

Meet the Secretary of the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport, Melanie Hawyes and the department’s leadership team.

Listen

Secretary

Melanie Hawyes

Secretary, Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport

Melanie Hawyes leads the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport (DCITHS). She is passionate about the creation of vibrant, world-class places, precincts and experiences that support the night-time, visitor and creative economies in NSW. She is a keen supporter of live music and the visual arts, and sees access to sport, culture and the arts as integral to the state’s identity, wellbeing and cohesion.

 She joined DCITHS as Secretary in February 2026, having served as Deputy Secretary, Crown Lands and Public Spaces in the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure from 2021 to 2026. In this role she managed a complex portfolio of land, assets, precincts, and public spaces, including some of Sydney’s most loved and visited destinations – the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, The Rocks, Darling Harbour and Barangaroo.

Prior to that Melanie held leadership roles in the former Office of Environment and Heritage, the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and the Department of Justice. Her 25-year career spans social policy, land and natural resource management, and regulatory reform. She is known for her collaborative approach and ability to build partnerships across government, industry and community, ensuring government decision making is grounded in economic opportunity, social impact and the lived experience of stakeholders.

In leading DCITHS, she is committed to making NSW a fantastic place to live, work and visit. Her ambition is to foster tourism and hospitality operators and businesses, sporting organisations, cultural institutions, artists and venues to create rich and varied cultural, creative and social experiences that everyone in NSW will love.

Melanie holds a degree in marine science and Masters of Environmental Law. She serves as a Board Member for the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.