November 2025
The nation’s next productivity push
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Australia’s peak engineering and professional services organisations have joined forces to ask the Australian Government to introduce a national registration scheme for professional engineers.
In a joint letter to Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Engineers Australia, Consult Australia, Professionals Australia and the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia have signalled their commitment to working with governments across Australia to replace the current fragmented system with a unified approach that delivers for the government, businesses, practitioners and the community.
“Engineering is at the heart of Australia’s economy, delivering the infrastructure, housing, technology and innovation that keep the nation moving,” says Romilly Madew AO, CEO of Engineers Australia.
“Yet despite this critical role, there’s no nationally consistent framework to ensure that only qualified, competent professionals can practise.
“Engineers Australia was pleased that federal, state and territory treasurers announced in September that they would look at reform opportunities in occupational licensing across a number of trades and occupations.
“A national scheme for engineers would streamline regulation, enhance public safety and help Australia meet its future infrastructure and workforce needs.”
Engineering registration currently varies state by state, creating regulatory gaps, barriers to workforce mobility and impacting our economic productivity. In contrast, a national scheme would deliver:
- Economic benefits – improving productivity, boosting workforce mobility and cutting red tape
- Stronger public protection – ensuring consistent professional standards
- Global competitiveness – aligning Australia with international best practice
- Greater trust and transparency across the engineering sector.
There are more than 545,000 qualified engineers in Australia. A nationally consistent registration scheme is one of the profession’s top priorities, with polling commissioned by Professionals Australia showing 93% of Australians support registration of engineers, with nearly 8 in 10 engineers backing the reform.
“A national registration scheme for engineers would be a high-impact reform,” says Jonathan Cartledge, CEO of Consult Australia. “Across our membership, we estimate more than $54 million is tied up in duplicated registration costs caused by inconsistent state systems. That’s money engineering businesses could invest in skills and technology to lift productivity.”
Australia already has the building blocks in place. The engineering profession operates under internationally recognised standards through the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) Accords, helping to ensure qualifications and professional competence are benchmarked globally.
David Jenkins, CEO, Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia, says: “As the people responsible for managing much of Australia’s public infrastructure, local government engineers in particular need a system that supports mobility, competence, and accountability across every jurisdiction.”
“A national registration scheme would enable us to do what is needed: fast-track harmonisation upwards to the most mature and broad-based scheme already in place across the country,” Sam Roberts, CEO of Professionals Australia, adds.
“Engineers are central to solving Australia’s productivity challenge,” Ms Madew concludes. “It’s time to remove regulatory fragmentation. We look forward to a system that supports better outcomes for our growing communities.”