Engineers Australia welcomes appointment of NSW Building Commissioner

Engineers Australia has welcomed the appointment of David Chandler as the inaugural NSW Building Commissioner.

"Only urgent action will restore confidence in the building and construction sector and today's announcement is a positive sign that the NSW Government is serious about reform," said Engineers Australia CEO, Peter McIntyre.

"NSW Building Commissioner is an important role and we hope that Mr Chandler will be given the support and resources he needs to implement the recommendations from the Shergold-Weir report, including the compulsory registration of engineers.

"In a national poll commissioned by Engineers Australia in July 2019, 88% of respondents agree that engineers should have to be registered.

"In NSW, that figure jumps to 91% and is consistently high across all demographics. If the NSW government legislates for a broad-based statutory register for engineers, it will have the support of city and rural voters, those on high and low incomes, men and women, and people of all age groups."

Engineers Australia has made a submission to the NSW Government in response to its discussion paper, Building Stronger Foundations. A copy of the submission is available online, here: https://bit.ly/2M6cqWR.

The discussion paper outlines proposals for implementing recommendations made in the Building Ministers Forum's (BMF) report, Building Confidence (also known as the 'Shergold & Weir report').

This includes options for introducing a registration scheme for engineers.

The submission we made has three overarching recommendations:

The proposed new registration scheme for currently unregistered engineers should be aligned with the system already in operation in QLD and is proposed for Victoria in the Professional Engineers Registration Bill 2019. This will ensure mutual recognition of registration across borders. The profession advises that this is a critical element for success.
The proposed new registration scheme for currently unregistered engineers should be applied to all who provide professional engineering services (other than those working under the supervision of a registered engineer) in the building sector. This is what the public expects.
The legislative mechanisms created to fulfil the short-term goal of engineer registration in the building sector should be designed to enable later expansion of the scope of registration to all engineering occupations in all industries. This is what is needed to one day attain a bigger vision for public safety and consumer confidence in engineering services.

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