17 Jun 2019
Our submission to MBIE on their proposed changes to how engineers were regulated was a collaborative effort. We received hundreds of pieces of feedback, with more than 550 people attending our sessions around the country.
Members’ feedback helped us create the draft that we shared in late May. And your comments on that draft led to some reshaping, along with the confirmation that it was generally on the right track.
As well as members, we’ve shared our draft submission with many stakeholders, including our technical groups, and they have in turn shared their submissions with us. Together, we’ve worked to build consensus on key points.
Everyone agrees that New Zealand needs strong regulation of engineering work where the risks are high, to better protect the public.
This should take the form of a licensing framework that’s flexible enough to accommodate other engineering disciplines and related professions. Licensing must be supported by strong self-regulation, in the form of one quality mark that recognises professionalism and general technical competence. This should be Engineering New Zealand’s existing internationally benchmarked Chartered Member class, renamed Chartered Engineer.
Engineering New Zealand is really pleased to have gained support in principle for our submission from 25 industry stakeholders, who are listed on its front page.
We’ve sent our submission to MBIE and we look forward to hearing more from them soon on next steps. We know this is just the start of a process of change. It’s also just the start of our collaboration with members and stakeholders on this issue, in the interests of the profession and New Zealand. Thank you for all your thoughtful feedback.
We’ve also submitted on the other changes that MBIE is proposing to the Building Act.
Read our submission on regulating engineers | 463.8 KB
Read our submission on wider building system legislative reform | 137.9 KB
