Legislative Assembly Committee on Environment and Planning

Report: Professional Engineers Registration Bill 2019

Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (13:03) — I make a brief contribution to the take‑note debate on the Legislative Assembly Committee on Environment and Planning report on the Professional Engineers Registration Bill 2019.

Firstly I thank the staff, my fellow committee members, the chair and all the stakeholders who took part by taking the time to make a submission. Of course, we had to suspend our other inquiry on energy. I suppose it is rare for our hardworking departmental staff that a politician changes their mind at the very last minute to deal with these things.

In recent times we have seen confidence lost in the building sector where people have invested their life savings into buying probably one of the biggest assets of their lives. We see major infrastructure being built all around the State and it is important to make sure that qualified people are doing the engineering work, which goes to the structural part of any building defects.

Part of the committee's findings was to ensure that our engineers continue to receive recognition for their skills, knowledge and learning. Being an engineer is a very distinguished qualification and it is important that we have a regulatory framework that recognises the important role they play.

I commend my colleague the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for introducing the Professional Engineers Registration Bill 2019, which is similar to the Queensland model, to ensure that we can build confidence in the building and infrastructure industry for our engineers.

I note that the Government has moved its own bill, the Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019. That is okay; it does not matter. The bills are very similar in their objectives and purpose.

Labor believes it is important to support the public interest rather than wrangle about whose bill it should be. We want to rebuild confidence in the industry, which will play an even more important role as the economy recovers.

I note—and it was echoed by the chair—that it is important in the statutory review to look at models and improvements that can be made to the legislation. In particular, a board-run model is a much more cost-effective and more efficient registration process.

I am sure that in due course those changes can and should be made because they will only increase the transparency, accountability and quality of standards, which will prevent any further deficiencies or defects in the building industry and improve the level of confidence in the industry. I commend the committee for its cooperation and thank the departmental staff for their assistance to the committee. I commend the committee's report to the House.