Push for consistency in professional registration
Professional registration schemes have been rolling out across the country, but the regime in New South Wales remains something of an outlier. Calls are now growing to bring it into line with other jurisdictions.
Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT all have regimes in place for professional registration of engineers – and all are slightly different. New South Wales in particular stands out, with its focus on addressing issues in high-rise residential buildings.
In New South Wales, engineers only need to be registered if they work on class 2, 3, or 9b buildings, or a building that includes a class 2, 3, or 9c part. In other states, registration covers not only all building types, but engineering work not done on buildings. These discrepancies complicate registration across borders.
To resolve the issue, Engineers Australia convened a roundtable at NSW Parliament, bringing together ministers, shadow ministers and MPs from all parties and independents to hear from leading industry and business representatives advocating for a nationally consistent engineering registration scheme in New South Wales.
Better together
The forum highlighted the public safety, economic and professional benefits of aligning New South Wales with national best practice and provided a platform for dialogue between government and industry stakeholders.
Industry demonstrated how a nationally consistent engineer registration scheme would pay productivity dividends across the country.
Engineers Australia CEO Romilly Madew AO emphasised the urgency of reform.
“As it stands, we currently have inconsistent laws around registration across states and territories,” she said.
“This regulatory misalignment acts as a barrier for individuals and employers and puts a break on the New South Wales economy.”
Engineers Australia CEO Romily Madew
“While we know most engineers provide their services competently, ethically and with diligence, in the absence of registration for engineering, the risk remains that simply anyone can claim to be an engineer on any project or work site (outside buildings) in NSW.”
The HVAC&R perspective
AIRAH CEO Sami Zheng, Affil.AIRAH agrees that Australia’s registration regimes should be harmonised.
“Discrepancies between registration systems are confusing for engineers working across borders and represent an administrative burden for industry,” Zheng says.
“Through our APER program, we are supporting professional registration schemes as an approved assessment entity, and we have seen first-hand the challenges posed by the differences across schemes.
“We fully support the calls to align the New South Wales system with regimes in other states.”
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