Latest / Best of Business / Richard Templer: Engineering NZ CEO urges the Government to release infrastructure funds amid job shortage

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Richard Templer: Engineering NZ CEO urges the Government to release infrastructure funds amid job shortage · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. There'd be
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  Speaker 2: Right concern, engineering roles are in decline. Engineering New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: s is work for engineers has dried up and they
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  Speaker 2: fear losing skilled professionals overseas. They're calling on the government
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  Speaker 2: to urgently release infrastructure funds. Engineering New Zealand chief executive
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  Speaker 2: doctor Richard Templer he joins me Now, good.
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  Speaker 3: Morning, Richard Cuda, and good morning, Hey, what kind.
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  Speaker 2: Of drop off are we seeing in the number of
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  Speaker 2: engineering roles available?
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  Speaker 3: So we are seeing hundreds of engineers losing their jobs
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  Speaker 3: with the reduction and infrastructure projects across the board in
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  Speaker 3: education and healthcare, roading, building and construction, and civil infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: such as Three Waters projects have been stopped, they haven't
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  Speaker 3: been restarted, and that's been over a year now that
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  Speaker 3: that work flowed through, and so engineering firms reluctantly have
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  Speaker 3: had to make hundreds of engineers redundant.
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  Speaker 2: Because Richard, we've been told that infrastructure is hugely important.
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  Speaker 2: The projects are coming, but is there just not enough
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  Speaker 2: certainty around them.
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  Speaker 3: So the challenge has been the timing the projects are
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  Speaker 3: absolutely vital. We know there's well over one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: fifty billion dollar infrastructure deficit and the government, to their credit,
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  Speaker 3: has air marked money and budgets, but that money hasn't flowed.
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  Speaker 3: And if you look at the stopping of big projects
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  Speaker 3: such as Dunedin Hospital, the Irex project, which is the
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  Speaker 3: Ferries project, that's a huge amount of expenditure that hasn't occurred,
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  Speaker 3: and firms did their best to hang on. But we're
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  Speaker 3: now sort of eighteen months since the projects were stopped
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  Speaker 3: and the money hasn't flowed, and so firms have had
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  Speaker 3: to make the very tough decision to let people, let
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  Speaker 3: people go.
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  Speaker 2: Government's fast track approved. Is that regime? Is that going
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  Speaker 2: to make a difference, Richard.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this is one of the big challenges. There's one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and forty nine projects there. Almost all of them
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  Speaker 3: need engineering to help with the design, and they need
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  Speaker 3: huge numbers of people to construct the project. And if
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  Speaker 3: you think about engineers involved in the design, if they
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  Speaker 3: lose roles in New Zealand, they will leave the travel
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  Speaker 3: overseas but maybe able to work overseas remotely. But the
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  Speaker 3: people who build our roads, build our hospitals, put the
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  Speaker 3: ferry terminals together are lined up to build the solar farms,
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  Speaker 3: the wind farms, the property developments, the roading all included
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  Speaker 3: in the fast track. They have to move overseas because
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  Speaker 3: you can't build a road virtually, you have to physically
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  Speaker 3: be there.
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  Speaker 2: What are the opportunities like overseas? Are you expecting quite
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  Speaker 2: a substantial brain drain here?
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  Speaker 3: Well. In September last year, I visited Australia to meet
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  Speaker 3: with our sister organization, Engineers Australia, and I was lucky
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  Speaker 3: enough to meet with some of the key players in
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  Speaker 3: infrastructure in Australia and they were saying, it's fantastic we
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  Speaker 3: can hire significant numbers of engineers. There's a huge infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: program going ahead in Australia in terms of upgrading their
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  Speaker 3: rid upgrading their roads including their rail links, and also
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  Speaker 3: significant defense spending, all of which requires engineers. They can
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  Speaker 3: employ people for the same or less than they can
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  Speaker 3: hire Australians. Kiwis are a great cultural fit in Australia
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  Speaker 3: and they don't even need to create extra office space
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  Speaker 3: because New Zealanders can work from home and it's basically
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  Speaker 3: like a shift that starts at six in the morning.
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  Speaker 3: And even more so if they need the engineer to
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  Speaker 3: meet with the client while they can be in Sydney
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  Speaker 3: or Melbourne quicker than someone flying from Perth.
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  Speaker 2: So, Richard, what needs to happen.
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  Speaker 3: The government has here marked a whole lot of money
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  Speaker 3: for infrastructure. What hasn't happened is it hasn't hit procurement,
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  Speaker 3: it hasn't been contracted out as hasn't started delivery. So
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  Speaker 3: we've called on the government to in their quarterly plans
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  Speaker 3: include infrastructure delivery. And they also need to get cracking
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  Speaker 3: on projects like the Denian Hospital. The cheapest time to
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  Speaker 3: do that is today. The next cheapest time is tomorrow.
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  Speaker 3: The longer we wait, the more expensive it will become.
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  Speaker 2: Richard, really appreciate your time and your expertise this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. That was Engineering New Zealand Chief
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  Speaker 2: Executive doctor Richard Templar.
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