President of the American Public Works Association and keynote speaker at the recent first International Congress of Local Government Engineers and Public Works, Robert Miller, told delegates that public works professionals must be willing to embrace change or ‘risk becoming the technological dinosaurs of the 21st Century’.
Staged in Sydney, delegates from USA, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, India and South Africa joined 400 Australian counterparts who attended the Congress, which incorporated the 10th National Local Government Engineering Conference.
“As managers of the public infrastructure, what you do affects the quality of the lives of all people who live in or visit your area,” Robert Miller said. To meet this task, he said, the public works professional must be multifaceted, fulfilling a range of roles. A key role is being an educator of the local community.
“If the public does not understand, how can we expect them to support decision makers investing in infrastructure?” he said. “We are the best people to explain what we do and why.” Robert Miller advocates working closely with schools to achieve this. He said students are keen to learn and will take the information you impart back to their families. “This is a vital part in the chain linking citizens to government,” he said.
Recognising the importance of multi skilling, the Institute of Municipal Engineering Australia (IMEA) formally launched its expanded organisation at the Congress opening. To be known as the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA), this organisation brings together all public works professionals.
“This is an exciting new direction,” said IPWEA Chief Executive, Don Sheffield. “We have moved beyond the traditional engineering base to include all people involved in public works, those who plan them, those who build them and those who maintain public infrastructure. “The new Institute will be bigger and better, bringing all these areas of expertise together.”
Then National President of IMEA, Chris Watson, said that, with this conference, a different path was taken in moving to an international gathering. “We have taken this path to reflect a different vision about the future,” he said. “We are looking much more broadly than our own Councils or nation.”
He said the recently launched Australasian Asset Management Manual, a combined project involving Australian Local Government engineers and their New Zealand counterparts, clearly demonstrates the value of international partnerships. Also speaking at the Congress, Dick Persson, Director General of the NSW Department of Public Works and Services, warned of the dangers of the running down of our infrastructure and natural environment.
He referred to an analysis by an older acquaintance who describes our generation as the greediest generation yet, taking the highest salaries and giving ourselves the largest tax cuts, borrowing the most money and then selling off the assets, her generation worked so hard to build, to pay off this debt. “We need more from our engineers to deal with the harm we are doing and the legacy we are leaving,” Dick Persson said.
He said the Congress theme, ‘Higher Stronger Faster’, clearly reflects the way forward. During the Congress Peter Taylor, Chief Executive Officer at Toowoomba City Council, was elected first National President of the IPWEA.
