A NSW MP and engineer has encouraged her fellow engineers to get more involved in political decision-making.
Speaking at a recent Engineers Australia Sydney Fellows Luncheon, Greens MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi said engineers are definitely a good fit for politics.
“The profession thinks creatively and works hard,” she said. “We are trained problem-solvers, and our education requires an enormous amount of focus and commitment. We also are more likely to calculate risks and deliver ‘frank and fearless’ professional advice on big and complex questions.”
She described how, at a recent public forum, a young engineer came up to her and said, “We are not interested in politics, we just want to know what the solutions are, what the projects are that we can work on.”
She begged to disagree.
“Once a project has been determined, it’s already too late and too difficult to change the course. The agenda has been set. All we are left with is making small changes here or there, to improve just individual elements of the projects not the plan or the strategy,” Faruqi said.
“More importantly, we should be making decisions that can make us world leaders in water management, in renewable energy, in exciting and innovative transport projects like high speed rail, in creating tens of thousands of sustainable jobs in NSW, in transforming the world.”
Faruqi applauded the strong sustainability and climate change policies adopted by Engineers Australia last year, that recognise the role of engineers in devising solutions to these big challenges.
“As leaders in the engineering profession you should be prepared to take more responsibility for creating this transformation,” she said.
“You don’t have to be party political if you don’t want to, but please be political. Use your knowledge, your commitment to a code of ethics that advocates for integrity and sustainability, and influence decision-making at the highest level.”