Industry News

Questions for our members and clients as we start advocacy road trip

Tracey and Elenora spent a significant amount of time travelling to a couple of the relevant state and local authorities late 2019 and early 2020 to remind them of their obligation to ensure they use PCCP accredited companies to carry out their work. We also held several video conferences where we could.

Our national education and knowledge program stopped short when COVID hit the world back in March 2020 and we have not been able to finalise our important work in this area. We have, however, remained in regular contact with many parties while we waited for the opportunity to recommence. We also have the opportunity to directly follow up any specific contracts that are advised to us that don’t meet the accreditation requirements, and are happy to continue to do so on behalf of our members.

As our schemes APAS and PCCP work together and we cannot use one without the other, we have to stipulate PCCP applicators only. We know that gets overridden or ignored in many cases but the fact it’s mandatory gives us the authority to tackle the groups and companies when this occurs. One of our biggest issues is we have a federated political system which means dealing with nine governments that rarely want to hold hands. You only have to look at the border and quarantining rules for COVID to see the uphill task in national consistency!

We are pleased that both APAS and PCCP continued to grow, with regulatory support, during these testing times and understand your frustration that our advocacy plans were scuppered. Please rest assured we are spending much time and effort in this area now and have recommenced our advocacy program .

We have kicked off 2022 with a focus on getting in front of our stakeholders. To date we have participated in:

• DesignBUILD Melbourne, which is traditionally one of Australia’s largest trade and professional building expos and usually dedicated to the architecture, building and design sectors. This year the event covered industries ranging from planning and construction to technology and facilities management, DesignBUILD, Total Facilities, the Be Summit and Digital Construction Week who joined forces to create a unique built environment event for Melbourne. Tracey joined an expert panel that spoke to the resources available to help procurers choose the right products for the right application,
• Corrosion Australia, where Tracey presented a paper on APAS-PCCP and joined a business panel discussing opportunities in this industry for women. This was the first time in a few years that we had the opportunity to present to this group to outline the scope of products and work included in the programs and highlight the inextricable link between product conformity and its correct selection and application. It also identified the issues and the opportunities with the APAS-PCCP schemes and provided a progress report on the work underway with a glimpse into new and aligned initiatives for the near future.

In July we will have a booth at and again present to the RIAA conference on the same subject, and be armed with fact sheets and brochures.

Our Australian federal, state and territory and New Zealand meetings are taking shape and will commence this month in the Northern Territory.

An email has been sent to members and participants inviting them to provide suggestions and contact details of Departments and/or Organisations they believe should be included.

Please contact us directly with the relevant details and any issues that need to be addressed asap and we will do our best to include them.

A presentation on our progress will be provided at the next ATAP and PTAP meetings.