Victorian Engineers Registration Scheme Update
Recap
The Victorian Government passed the Professional Engineers Registration Bill in August 2019.
In the period leading up to the passing of that Bill only Engineers Australia and Professionals Australia had direct input. Both laid misleading claims to have widely surveyed the views of their members and neither of them took on concerns of their Professional Engineers about unacceptable clauses. These unacceptable clauses were never presented when they carried out their surveys.
On Monday, 2nd December 2019, Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) held an Information Forum on the Bill at 121 Exhibition Street, Melbourne,which was attended by only around 40 Professional Engineers including one GREG member representative. CAV basically advised those there of the program to develop the regulations, and only EA and PA would be involved and that it was not possible to alter the Bill.
August Update
Whilst the proposed registration categories are currently centred around the building and construction industry, the plan of the Victorian Government is to expand the list of categories to capture as many engineering disciplines as possible as the scheme gets underway. The process is intended in time to emulate the Queensland RPEQ legislation that covers 25 areas of Professional Engineering registration. With the eventual outcome to widen the net to capture all engineers providing engineering services in and from this state of Victoria.
This will affect you as your field of engineering may fall into a category listed for compulsory registration with serious ramifications, not least of all being insurance requirements. It is therefore extremely important that you raise your voice now else it may be too late.
On the 26th August 2020, the Department of Justice and Community Safety conducted a Stakeholders’ forum online with less than 40 participants, possibly because the event had a short notice and reached only a select few. A couple of us from GREG committee participated online on the day. One question raised by myself (Bernie Chen), remained unanswered and they took the question on‐board to come back to it at a later date.
Worksafe Victoria had indicated to Industry that asset engineer or plant engineer responsible for industrial plant such as a Major Hazards Facilities will require registration. My question on the day to the forum was that these asset engineers or Plant engineers over saw multiple disciplines or have functional responsibilities over cross disciplines. The proposal is registration along lines of strict discipline lines with no scope for cross discipline expertise. How will the regulation cover this?
As part of the Department’s commitment to engage stakeholders, consultation documents are now available for stakeholders to make comments. These documents are all available on the Department’s website: https://engage.vic.gov.au/engineers‐registration There are eight MSWord documents that you can download, read, digest and comment on. The website also host links documents such as the Professional Engineers Registration Act 2019 and the Victorian State of Engineering Report 2019 and 2018.
Stake holders must submit their comments before the close of business of the 7th October 2020. I strongly urge all of you to read these consultation documents and provide your comments to the Department of Justice and Community Safety by 7th October. The regulation will make a big difference to you, if not now then in time to come.
You can channel your comments directly or anonymously through GREG’s working group Team Leader, John Lambert, but you will need to do so by the 1st October to enable John to assemble all submitted comments. John will also be making a group submission on behalf of the GREG.
John contact details: Mobile: 0417 033 258 Email: lambertj235@bigpond.com
However, I urge you all to make individual submission as a large number of submissions made will carry a greater weight than one single group submission. If you feel you want to discuss this subject, please feel free to contact myself or John Lambert.
Your submission, which can also include comments on the process to date and comments on the Bill as passed, will need to be made online via the website, https://engage.vic.gov.au/engineers‐registration, or in writing via email to: engineers@justice.vic.gov.au