HVIA has had a mixed response to its advocacy on the Victorian Government’s review of the Professional Engineers Registration Act (PERA) which commenced almost 12 months ago.
At the time, HVIA consulted with members and submitted a response that heavily criticised the scheme’s broad application to heavy vehicles and engineers working in the heavy vehicle sector.
In particular, the submission called for an explicit ‘carve out’ of the heavy vehicle industry on the basis that heavy vehicles are generic products and the work done is mostly to prescriptive standards. Both factors mean that it should fall outside of the scope of the PERA, but the guidance material and the act itself don’t make that clear. Having an explicit carve out would fix that.
HVIA’s submission was one of 106 written submissions the review received, which HVIA believes is indicative of the depth and breadth of concerns raised by impacted stakeholders regarding the scheme.
Last month, the Victorian Government announced the finalisation of its PERA review, and the release of two documents related to its findings. The full report is lengthy, and interested members are encouraged to review the shorter ‘response’ document, as it is a simple summary of the recommendations, and the Government’s plan for addressing them.
In the context of HVIA’s submission, the Government’s response is a mixed bag. While there was no explicit agreement to our requests, there are some promising commitments that may deliver on them, if followed with further advocacy effort.
The most promising is the ‘support in full’ of the update of definitions, which include many of the terms members raised issue with, which included ‘professional engineering services’, ‘prescriptive standards’ and ‘direct supervision’. Clarifying those definitions is likely to be the best avenue to achieving a defacto ‘carve-out’ for the heavy vehicle industry.
The next most-promising is the ‘support in principle’ of the production of industry-specific guidance material. This is the best chance of fixing the current confusion for heavy vehicle engineers.
The report highlights the existence of an online tool that engineers can use to check if the PERA applies to them. HVIA has trialled the tool and considers that it suffers the same issues as the PERA itself, in that it isn’t clear if the heavy vehicle industry is captured.
HVIA welcomes all feedback from members regarding the tool, and how it could be improved. Please contact HVIA Chief Technical Officer Adam Ritzinger at a.ritzinger@hvia.asn.au.
HVIA’s technical and advocacy teams will undertake the following:
>> Seek an in-person meeting to discuss how the heavy vehicle sector can best engage on the definition update and guidance material projects.
>> Talk to Consumer Affairs Vic (hosts of the online tool) about updating the tool to be clear about services to the heavy vehicle industry.