Update by: Amanda Hancock, Regional Strategic Infrastructure Coordinator
QLD Water - Urban Water Skills Forum, Parliament House, Brisbane - 27 March 2025
During a recent FNQ Water Alliance meeting, I welcomed the invitation from the QLD Water Directorate invited me to present the FNQROC Regional Water Capability Plan at the Qld Water Urban Water Skills Forum at Parliament House in Brisbane.
The event brought together industry leaders, government representative, training organisations and stakeholders to tackle the opportunities in building a sustainable water workforce.
The Honourable Amanda Stocker, Assistant Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training conducting the opening address and spoke of the recent Queensland Audit Report regarding the management of regional water quality and the recommendations which included assessing and addressing identified capability and expertise gaps, and the need to promote workforce planning.
Click here to read the full report.
This event brought together industry leaders, government representatives, training organisations, and stakeholders to tackle the opportunities for building a sustainable water workforce. The keynote speaker, Michael Malakellis, Principal Director at KPMG, spoke of how the macroeconomic shifts are impacting the water sector and how we might respond to ensure workforce sustainability. Amongst other speakers, was Unity Water who explored how AI and other technologies are being used to improve training efficiency and we heard about the important Skills Assessment work being conducted by other regional water alliances.
My presentation provided an overview of our recently endorsed Regional Water Capability Plan, which aims to identify capability gaps within the water sector and provide options for our member councils. It provides a list of scalable and achievable short, medium, and long-term strategic initiatives and actions that enable councils to address capability challenges in delivering services across the region, focusing on fostering council collaboration and regional partnerships.
FNQ Regional Water Capability Plan
The FNQ Regional Water Capability Plan provides eleven strategic initiatives with corresponding implementation actions. At the last FNQ Water Alliance councils agreed to focus on progressing the initiatives identified as having the highest business value, which are as follows:
Initiative 3 – Standardised SOPS, work instructions, templates, and processes
Initiative 4 – Standardised water and wastewater asset design and specification
Initiative 8 – Driving change in water and wastewater grant funding and;
Initiative 11 – Building and sustaining a strong water workforce for FNQ
FNQROC will work closely with councils to progress the various implementation actions. Some have been identified as being wholly within the control of councils, whereas others will need additional or specialist capability or capacity from the market or government to enable delivery. We will continue to update you as this important work progresses.