Having been involved with Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) for around 10 years and spending the last two years as vice president, Mat Greskie recently accepted the top job as president.
Inside Construction spoke to Greskie about his vision for IPWEA and the challenges facing the institute and its members.
On changes
Greskie: I’ve been in different public works roles for most of my career including local government, waste management and water and sewerage prior to that. Over this time, the role of public works and local government has seen significant change. The expectations of communities are increasing and there’s no question that they expect to be consulted more than they have been in the past. And this is at a time when the constraints on local government are probably greater than they have ever been.
Take the accounts for example: ratepayers are far more sensitive to increases in fees, charges, and rates. Combine this with reduced government funding and you have community expectations rising whilst resources are reducing which sets certain challenges. IPWEA helps public works practitioners to be as efficient and economical as possible, and to do their absolute best with the tools and resources at their disposal.
Technology is a main driver for this sector – it’s playing a major role already and its importance is only going to increase in the future. Our asset management program is world leading, and we recently launched the IPWEA Street Lighting and Smart Control (SLSC) Programme. This programme will assist public lighting buyers, vendors, contractors, funders and advisors to efficiently and economically engage in procurement of LED lighting and control systems for public lighting.
Stakeholders identified that there are a wide variety of approaches to specifications and procurement, which has led to impediments and inefficiencies. The SLSC programme is designed to assist local government with tenders for the best available form of lighting and full cost of life for the specifications to the market. We partnered with the federal government on this initiative and the up take has exceeded expectations. Some of our products have received world-wide acclaim, our sector is a world leader in some areas of asset management.
On the infrastructure boom
Greskie: This ‘once in a generation’ infrastructure boom is obviously impacting on public works and our members. The challenge is to arm our members with the right tools. It’s all well and good to be given a massive cash injection to build the infrastructure; what we don’t want is the funding bodies saying, “that’s it”. It’s only part of it – often the life costs of the infrastructure are far in excess of the capital build costs and this needs to be taken into account. There’s no point in building a multi-billion-dollar highway if you don’t factor in the maintenance costs for the expected life of the project.
That’s a great part of what we do with our asset management tool. It’s about being able to draw that connection between build costs and whole-of-life costs.
We’re keen to see local government engineers working closely with the accountants. In the past, accounting financials and engineering financials have been managed separately, which is not appropriate in this day and age. We need to be working together on the same set of numbers. Our training programmes and systems are designed to create this alignment.
IPWEA works closely with both the federal and state governments at various levels. The association is made up of the Australasian body, and we have state divisions, which includes New Zealand. Each of these has varying degrees of contact with government bodies; some are doing exceptionally well and have constant contact and influence with their state governments and oppositions. In other states it’s not so important, so it’s a bit of horses for courses in terms of levels of engagement and how they engage. The IPWEA Asset Management Congress is a good example. The content will focus on the future of infrastructure and it’s being held in Canberra August 13 – 16 so we can further increase those connections with federal government.
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