00:00:06
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin from News talksb.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: Right concern engineering roles are in decline. Engineering New Zealand's his work for engineers has dried up and they fear losing skilled professionals overseas. They're calling on the government to urgently release infrastructure funds. Engineering New Zealand chief executive doctor Richard Templer, he joins me. Now, good morning, Richard Cuda, and good morning, Hey, what kind of drop off are we seeing in the number of engineering roles available?
00:00:38
Speaker 3: So we are seeing hundreds of engineers losing their jobs with the reduction and infrastructure projects across the board in education and healthcare, roading, building and construction, and civil infrastructure such as Three Waters projects have been stopped. They haven't been restarted, and that's been over a year now that that work hasn't flowed through, and so engineering firms reluctantly have had to make hundreds of engineers redundant.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: Because Richard, we've been told that infrastructure is hugely important. The projects are coming, but is there just not enough certainty around them.
00:01:20
Speaker 3: So the challenge has been the timing. The projects are absolutely vital. We know there's well over one hundred and fifty billion dollar infrastructure deficit and the government, to their credit, has air marked money and budgets, but that money hasn't flowed. And if you look at the stopping of big projects such as Dunedin Hospital, the Irex project, which is the Ferries project, that's a huge amount of expenditure that hasn't occurred, and firms did their best to hang on. But we're now sort of eighteen months since the projects were stopped and the money hasn't flowed, and so firms have had to make the very tough decision to let people, let people go.
00:02:02
Speaker 2: Government's fast track approvals that regime. Is that going to make a difference, Richard.
00:02:08
Speaker 3: Well, this is one of the big challenges. There's one hundred and forty nine projects there. Almost all of them need engineering to help with the design, and they need huge numbers of people to construct the project. And if you think about engineers involved in the design, if they lose roles in New Zealand, they will leave the travel overseas, but may be able to work overseas remotely. But the people who build our roads, build our hospitals, put the ferry terminals together are lined up to build the solar farms, the wind farms, the property developments, the roading all included in the fast track. They have to move overseas because you can't build a road virtually, you have to physically be there.
00:02:53
Speaker 2: What are the opportunities like overseas? Are you expecting quite a substantial brain drain here?
00:03:00
Speaker 3: Well? In September last year, I visited Australia to meet with our sister organization, Engineers Australia, and I was lucky enough to meet with some of the key players in infrastructure in Australia and they were saying, it's fantastic we can hire significant numbers of engineers. There's a huge infrastructure program going a head in Australia in terms of upgrading their rid upgrading their roads including their rail links, and also significant defense spending, all of which requires engineers. They can employ people for the same or less than they can hire Australians. Kiwis are a great cultural fit in Australia and they don't even need to create extra office space because New Zealanders can work from home and it's basically like a shift that starts at six in the morning, and even more so if they need the engineer to meet with the client while they can be in Sydney or Melbourne quicker than someone flying from Perth.
00:04:01
Speaker 2: So, Richard, what needs to happen.
00:04:05
Speaker 3: The government has heirmarked a whole lot of money for infrastructure. What hasn't happened is it hasn't hit procurement, it hasn't been contracted out, is hasn't started delivery. So we've called on the government to in their quarterly plans include infrastructure delivery. And they also need to get cracking on projects like the Denian Hospital. The cheapest time to do that is today. The needt cheapest time is tomorrow. The longer we wait, the more expensive it will become.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: Richard, really appreciate your time and your expertise this morning. Thank you so much. That was Engineering New Zealand Chief executive doctor Richard Templar.
00:04:46
Speaker 1: For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin from News talksb.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: Right concern engineering roles are in decline. Engineering New Zealand's his work for engineers has dried up and they fear losing skilled professionals overseas. They're calling on the government to urgently release infrastructure funds. Engineering New Zealand chief executive doctor Richard Templer, he joins me. Now, good morning, Richard Cuda, and good morning, Hey, what kind of drop off are we seeing in the number of engineering roles available?
00:00:38
Speaker 3: So we are seeing hundreds of engineers losing their jobs with the reduction and infrastructure projects across the board in education and healthcare, roading, building and construction, and civil infrastructure such as Three Waters projects have been stopped. They haven't been restarted, and that's been over a year now that that work hasn't flowed through, and so engineering firms reluctantly have had to make hundreds of engineers redundant.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: Because Richard, we've been told that infrastructure is hugely important. The projects are coming, but is there just not enough certainty around them.
00:01:20
Speaker 3: So the challenge has been the timing. The projects are absolutely vital. We know there's well over one hundred and fifty billion dollar infrastructure deficit and the government, to their credit, has air marked money and budgets, but that money hasn't flowed. And if you look at the stopping of big projects such as Dunedin Hospital, the Irex project, which is the Ferries project, that's a huge amount of expenditure that hasn't occurred, and firms did their best to hang on. But we're now sort of eighteen months since the projects were stopped and the money hasn't flowed, and so firms have had to make the very tough decision to let people, let people go.
00:02:02
Speaker 2: Government's fast track approvals that regime. Is that going to make a difference, Richard.
00:02:08
Speaker 3: Well, this is one of the big challenges. There's one hundred and forty nine projects there. Almost all of them need engineering to help with the design, and they need huge numbers of people to construct the project. And if you think about engineers involved in the design, if they lose roles in New Zealand, they will leave the travel overseas, but may be able to work overseas remotely. But the people who build our roads, build our hospitals, put the ferry terminals together are lined up to build the solar farms, the wind farms, the property developments, the roading all included in the fast track. They have to move overseas because you can't build a road virtually, you have to physically be there.
00:02:53
Speaker 2: What are the opportunities like overseas? Are you expecting quite a substantial brain drain here?
00:03:00
Speaker 3: Well? In September last year, I visited Australia to meet with our sister organization, Engineers Australia, and I was lucky enough to meet with some of the key players in infrastructure in Australia and they were saying, it's fantastic we can hire significant numbers of engineers. There's a huge infrastructure program going a head in Australia in terms of upgrading their rid upgrading their roads including their rail links, and also significant defense spending, all of which requires engineers. They can employ people for the same or less than they can hire Australians. Kiwis are a great cultural fit in Australia and they don't even need to create extra office space because New Zealanders can work from home and it's basically like a shift that starts at six in the morning, and even more so if they need the engineer to meet with the client while they can be in Sydney or Melbourne quicker than someone flying from Perth.
00:04:01
Speaker 2: So, Richard, what needs to happen.
00:04:05
Speaker 3: The government has heirmarked a whole lot of money for infrastructure. What hasn't happened is it hasn't hit procurement, it hasn't been contracted out, is hasn't started delivery. So we've called on the government to in their quarterly plans include infrastructure delivery. And they also need to get cracking on projects like the Denian Hospital. The cheapest time to do that is today. The needt cheapest time is tomorrow. The longer we wait, the more expensive it will become.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: Richard, really appreciate your time and your expertise this morning. Thank you so much. That was Engineering New Zealand Chief executive doctor Richard Templar.
00:04:46
Speaker 1: For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
