THE CHAPMAN ORATION
Delivered on 16 December, 1997
by Hon Mark Birrell MP
Minister for Industry, Science & Technolgy
to the Institution of Engineers Australia (Victorian Division)
The changing contribution of engineers to Victoria’s development
I am honoured to be invited to the Institution of Engineers to present the 1997 Chapman Oration.
I am particularly honoured to follow such a distinguished roll call of previous speakers:
I am also pleased that I have been invited here in my capacity as Victoria’s first Minister for Science and Technology – and to build on the very close relationship I have with your Institution.
Science, engineering and technology are central to the State’s economic and social future and it is heartening that such a large audience has gathered in honour of an engineer who provided leadership in both his professional and personal life for a period of over 40 years.
Wilfred Disney Chapman was an outstanding individual whose broad interests and activities, as well as his contribution to the engineering profession, provided a source of inspiration to the community.
He gave his time generously both to the development of his profession, particularly through this Institution, and by providing leadership and guidance to others throughout his career.
His career was predominantly in civil engineering – on the railways – with his contribution to railway bridge design and construction well recognised. Many of Chapman’s bridges remain in use today as an enduring legacy to his work.
He was an innovator – pioneering new techniques in the electric welding of steel structures during the strengthening and widening of the railway bridge at Echuca.
When working for the EMF Electric Company and Australian Paper Mills, Chapman undertook research and development.
He was an advocate – for his profession and this Institution.
Chapman served the nation in both world wars – completing his military service at the rank of Brigadier and Chief Superintendent of Design in 1945.
His final work before his death in 1955 was far and clear sighted – the standardisation of railway gauges – a task of real importance to nationhood and the Australian economy. It took some 27 years after his death for Australian mainland capitals to be joined by standard gauge lines.
Chapman’s life has inspired my themes tonight. First, that the profession’s contribution has changed in form, but remains fundamental if not more important still, for Victoria and Australia into the future. And second, that we must do what we can to sponsor, to encourage and educate the engineering heroes of the next generation for the era of a globalisation and the knowledge economy.
The Government of Victoria, the Premier, and I in my role as Industry, Science and Technology Minister, are ready to play our part.
Let us consider then what differences Wilfred Chapman would see in the engineering profession if he were alive today.
Since the 1950’s, the world has undergone huge social and technological change and the engineering profession has been a major part of this.
To start with, in Chapman’s day engineering was a profession largely of the public sector whereas today the vast majority of engineers are employed by the private sector.
These changes are reflected in the membership of the Institution of Engineers.
Even as late as the early 1970’s, 80 per cent of the 24,000 members of the Australian Institution of Engineers were employed in the public sector – in the State-owned utilities like power and water, in the State-owned transport authorities such as road, rail and airports, and in the civil works of local governments.
Today, the situation is exactly the reverse. Eight per cent of the Institution’s members are in the private sector and only 20 per cent are in the public sector. The national membership has grown to 65,000, 26% of which is in Victoria.
By 2007 it is anticipated there will be 80,000 members of the Institution in Australia with some 30% being in Victoria. This growth reflects Victoria’s lead in the area of privatisation of government services, and our strong manufacturing and communications base.
In Chapman’s day, most of the Institution’s members were civil or related engineers – working to build and operate the State’s infrastructure. Today only about a quarter of the Institution’s members are civil engineers, with significant growth in membership in fields such as communications, electrical, and mechanical engineers.
This reflects significant changes to the industrial and services base of our economy, and in particular, a dramatic rethink about the roles of Government in providing infrastructure and delivering services.
Privatisation of utilities and transport services and the use of industry in the building of our infrastructure is a change that is ongoing and will continue to result in savings for the community and enhanced competitiveness for the State.
It is a change that has expended opportunities and horizons for engineers and others. It has liberated skills and encouraged an entrepreneurship hitherto unknown – but one I am sure Chapman the innovator would have applauded.
It has changed the way we view engineers – engineering excellence is no longer measured by technical standards alone, it is also measured by business outcomes. Engineers, indeed, can increasingly be found in boardrooms, with their natural advantages in thinking systematically.
Engineering has also diversified, as engineers take the lead in information and communications technology, and in the technologies of advanced manufacturing and materials handling. These are technologies which lie at the heart of Victoria’s manufacturing strength in sectors like automotive and metals manufacturing.
Engineering is also aligning itself more closely with emerging technologies like environmental management and biotechnology, where an engineering approach is essential for innovation. For instance, the development of medical devices requires the skills of multidisciplinary teams, where engineers work alongside medically and scientifically trained professionals to develop practical, attractive and non-invasive solutions to medical problems.
Thus Biomedical Engineering has emerged in recent years. This is a field in which Victoria has great technical and commercial strength – demonstrated by the success of the cochlear implant technology.
There are also the environmental engineers who build and maintain our energy and water infrastructure, both here and overseas, who will play a key role for the future.
The recent climate-change summit at Kyoto demonstrates that there are real engineering challenges ahead for Victoria, Australia and the world in the area of energy management.
One contribution that engineering can make to meeting this challenge is improving energy efficiency. There is much that can be done immediately. Re-engineering industries can lead to significant reductions in energy consumption by eliminating waste.
It is appropriate then that, increasingly, young engineers are combining engineering with disciplines like biotechnology, environmental science and business management.
The engineering profession has, therefore, diversified in ways that Wilfred Chapman could not have foreseen. But while there has been a shift from the public to the private sector, it remains a profession that provides service to the community.
Of course Chapman saw many changes to the profession during the "interesting times" in which he lived.
His was a "mechanical age" – a time of great technological advances – it was a time when transport was the key to building Victoria and the nation.
And it was transportation and the skills of engineers in fields such as mining which enabled Australia to realise our pastoral and our mineral wealth.
But the next few years will see ever faster and greater change. The shift from microtechnologies to nanotechnologies, in the continual search for solutions that are smaller – faster – lighter – will be among the major engineering challenges of the future.
And engineering will also have a key role on the macro stage with sustainable development and the environment requiring national and global solutions.
Already we live in an "information age", where the challenge is the opening up of the globe, not just the nation.
Economic prosperity no longer simply derives from what we can grow or mine, it derives increasingly from knowledge based goods and services – high technology manufactured products and value added services.
Technology and the globalisation of markets, finance and business are driving change.
The global market place is increasingly a much tougher place to operate in, so Australian businesses have to run faster just to stay on the pace. Technology and telecommunications mean that our business competitors can come from anywhere in the world.
But at the end of 1997, Victoria (and Australia) are better placed than we have been for a long time to compete in the global market place.
Economic activity continues to expand and the state is recording growth levels well above the national average for new business investment and exports.
New business investment in Victoria soared by 24% to $19.4 billion in the year to September 1997, a growth rate higher than all other Australian States.
Most important, eight of Australia’s top ten R&D spending firms base their R&D in Victoria.
Victoria’s exports have also increased substantially, particularly for elaborately transformed manufactures – cars, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, equipment and information technology products have increased 120% in five years this is faster than the growth rate for these exports in the rest of Australia.
The Government has created the environment in which major building and infrastructure projects are going ahead or are being proposed.
Federation Square, the Docklands redevelopment and the recently opened Exhibition Centre are major projects that are of national significance.
Business has recognised Victoria as the location for major construction projects.
Engineers are once more at the leading edge of the State’s development.
In many respects, the City Link Project typifies the excellence of engineering in this State.
The $2 billion City Link, the largest infrastructure project under construction in Australia, spans some 22 kilometres of roads, bridges and tunnels and will, when it is completed in 1999, finally connect three of Melbourne’s main freeways to provide a much needed bypass of the city.
Some 6,000 to 8,000 jobs will be created during the construction phase and 2,000 when the link is operational.
When it opens, the City Link will make a significant contribution to the efficiency of the economic infrastructure and competitiveness of the State, increasing the State’s Gross Domestic Product by an estimated $340 million.
It is hardly surprising that Mr. Robert Cooper, the Project Director of Transfield-Obayashi, the designers and builders of City Link, received the prestigious 1997 Professional Engineer of the Year award.
In part these projects can go ahead because Victoria’s engineers are of very high calibre – and very competitive.
As Mr. Helmut Pekarek, the Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens in Australia, recently commented, an important part of Victoria’s good climate for business development and investment was the "availability of skilled engineers, scientists and software programmers at nearly half the cost of equivalent resources in Germany".
This is our competitive advantage – it is the quality and skills in engineering that have assisted Victoria to attract investments such as the establishment of G.M.Opel’s engineering centre for the Asia-Pacific region in Port Melbourne, and the commitment last year of $70 million by Robert Bosch to establish a centre for the development, manufacture and marketing of autobody electronics.
But remaining competitive represents a huge challenge in the world of open markets and the knowledge economy. Two particular challenges are worth highlighting. First, the need for a continuing supply of first class science and engineering graduates, and second, making the most of the synergies which can come from better linking of our science and engineering skills.
In 1993 Australia had 1003 first degree students graduating in Science and Engineering per million of our population – this was higher than the USA, UK, and Germany. But for engineering the trends are worrying – over the 1990s there has been a declining interest in engineering and surveying courses in Victoria.
Between 1991 and 1996 the decline in applications for undergraduate courses in engineering and surveying was 15.6% and there was an even larger decline of 24.1% over the period 1992-1996 in enrolments for post graduate study in engineering and surveying.
Too many of our young people see ‘science’ as a good thing, but they have an image of scientists and engineers as poorly paid, with often unglamorous jobs.
To reverse these trends, we must encourage our best and brightest students into science and engineering. We must change their perceptions and promote a truer picture:
Looking to the challenges of Victoria’s future in the global knowledge economy, it is great to be able to state confidently that we certainly do not start from a zero base.
Scientific and engineering excellence underpins our current economic strength – enterprises based on these disciplines contribute an estimated $33 billion, or 30% of gross state product, to the Victorian economy each year.
Recent and proposed investments prove that Victoria has Australia’s best engineers and we have Australia’s best environment for engineering.
The Premier and I launched Creating our Future, the Government’s Science, Engineering and Technology statement in July this year, conscious of these matters above all.
The focus of the Creating our Future reflected the ideas and suggestions put forward by organisations and associations including the Institution of Engineers.
I was pleased that the Statement was well received by those individuals and organisations – but the Statement was only the beginning of a solid commitment from us to meeting the challenges we face.
As much of the knowledge, skill and creativity lies outside Government we have established the Science, Engineering and Technology Taskforce with members from business, research, education communities as well as government.
The Taskforce is charged with providing high level strategic advice, and will be instrumental in setting the science, engineering and technology agenda across the Government and across the state.
The Taskforce met for the first time in September and we will be holding our second meeting this week.
The Taskforce, through its standing committees, is progressing work in three critical areas:
I have been asked by some why the Creating our Future document was a "science, engineering and technology statement, rather than the usual science and technology statement".
I very deliberately included engineering as a central element within the new policy, because I wanted to ensure that engineering received the enhanced recognition that it deserves.
It will be well know to all in this room that engineering is at the heart of many of Australia’s greatest achievements.
Engineering is the nexus between technology and business – it is engineers that apply technology commercially.
Now, the gap between public perceptions and a positive reality on this is one which government can fill.
In July, the government announced the creation of the Victoria Prize, and the wish to award the new Victorian Fellowships, in order to recognise such excellence, and to promote the stature of science and engineering as a professional career choice.
The Victoria Prize has been created to inspire personal commitment and recognise exceptional achievement in science, engineering and technology.
The prize of $50,000 will be awarded annually for a particular scientific breakthrough or innovation which significantly advances our knowledge base or has the potential to lead to a commercial outcome.
The first award of the Victoria Prize will be in May 1998.
Six Victorian Fellowships will be awarded annually to emerging leaders in their fields of science, engineering and technology.
The Fellowships will be available to tertiary students completing their post graduate studies or individuals already in the workforce who show potential for further development.
I am pleased to announce that nominations for these awards will be sought within weeks.
Government must work with industry to achieve this vision; the Victoria Prize, and the fellowships are only part of the Government’s contribution to promoting science and engineering.
The Institution of Engineers is already playing an important role, and it has now proposed a national engineering forum – EnVision 98 – for Melbourne next year.
EnVision has the theme of a whole of economy approach towards national development, employment, value adding and ecologically sustainable development. As a major forum it will help Victoria promote its science and engineering strengths on a national stage. And – like many of the other ideas or projects I have mentioned in this address – the State Government will be a major sponsor.
The identification of the outstanding engineers – our engineering heroes of the late 1990’s for the early twenty first century will be the State Government’s research project for EnVision.
Chapman was an engineering hero – a leader in his professional, military and personal life.
Who are the young men and women who are following in Wilfred Chapman’s footsteps? We will work with the Institution of Engineers to identify our young engineers that have made it.
Those women and men who have developed new ventures, and who through their entrepreneurial flair have excelled in business. Our research projects will identify key factors to success, and how we can encourage others to follow in their footsteps.
The research and case studies can then become a useful tool in teaching entrepreneurship to engineering graduates and can also be used to promote careers in engineering to high school students.
So that in future we will celebrate a whole new generation of men and women who, like Wilfred Disney Chapman, are excited by engineering and use that to make Australia better place.