Engineers Australia’s policy representatives met with the Assistant Minister for Defence and Veterans’ Affairs, the Hon Matt Thistlethwaite MP.   

In a wide-ranging discussion the Minister was briefed on our members’ interest in the AUKUS defence deal.   

Group Executive Policy and Public Affairs, Damian Ogden and Head of Government Relations, Simon Santow, spoke of the importance of government support to help enable additional skills training to boost the engineering workforce needed to for the program. 

The group discussed the challenges in getting more young people STEM trained and the need to ensure Australia makes the most of appropriately trained overseas born migrant engineers. Damian Ogden and Simon Santow explained how our Global Engineering Talent program is showing significant potential to make a difference in training and placing migrant engineers into the workforce.   

The meeting was also a chance to brief the Minister on the need to bring uniform registration for engineers across Australia. With consistent registration, whole industry standards are lifted, engineers can benefit from less bureaucracy and have greater mobility to take their skills and training to where the jobs are.   

The meeting builds on Engineers Australia’s recent engagement with the Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Pat Conroy MP.