As part of our Centenary celebration and our commitment to being the “Voice of the Profession”, Engineers Australia’s National President Hon. Trish White and Hon. Bill Johnston MLA Minister for Mines and Petroleum; Energy; Industrial Relations co-hosted an Engineers Meets Parliament function on Tuesday 19 March.
Held in the aptly named Centenary Room at Parliament House, we were joined by Mr Chris Tallentire, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Hon. Dave Kelly MLA, Minister for Water; Fisheries; Forestry; Innovation and ICT; Science.
Engineers Australia 2019 WA President Paul Young and CEO Peter McIntyre represented Engineers Australia along with General Manager WA Susan Kreemer Pickford, past WA President James Westcott and the WA Chair of the College of Leadership and Management Francis Norman.
We were joined by three Hon. Fellows including the Hon. Bill Marmion MLA and a representative from our Young Engineers committee, along with senior leaders from industry and academia.
Following introductory remarks, the discussion centred on the key issues of engineering registration, Chief Engineer and future workforce requirements – including the need to diversify our economy beyond the resources sector to offer more diverse work opportunities and plan future workforce requirements.
Trish White proffered that the skill sets and capabilities of engineers should be tapped into more at board and advisory committee levels. She advocated to government to continue to approach Engineers Australia for recommendations on appointments as engineers bring a wealth of experience in solving complex and challenging matters. Trish reiterated Engineers Australia’s willingness to engage with government across a range of matters and, on behalf of our members and the engineering profession, we strongly valued the opportunity to inform and advise government when called upon to serve the broader community.
As a group, we agreed that engineers have the capacity to make significant contributions in developing strategic plans and the planning process, as well as the design and execution of major infrastructure and other engineering deliverables.
Engineers Australia strongly encourages members interested in government board and committee positions to nominate through the WA Government’s OnBoardWA register.
CEO Peter McIntyre spoke to the increasing number of issues related to the engineering industry that are eroding community trust and that can only be solved via a strong and consistent engineer registration system. Such was the finding of an early 2018 a report by Professor Peter Shergold and Bronwyn Weir, titled Building Confidence: Improving the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement systems for the building and construction industry across Australia.
Amongst 24 recommendations in the report was a nationally consistent approach to the registration of building practitioners, including builders, site managers, building surveyors, building inspectors, architects, engineers, designers/draftspeople, plumbers and fire safety practitioners.
“It is our considered view that the nature and extent of the problems put to us are significant and concerning,” the report said. “They are likely to undermine public trust in the health and safety of buildings if they are not addressed in a comprehensive manner.”
Engineers Australia was encouraged by the positive reception from Minister Johnston in regards to the matters raised and will continue to work alongside government to progress them.