eFlash #622

eFlash #622 New

Date: 02-Apr-2025

Essentials Webinars

We have two Essentials Webinars on important topics coming up:

High Pressure Water Jetting

Friday, 4 April 2025 from 10.00 to 11.00 am.

Following the announcement by the Office of Industrial Relations to grant an HPWJ exemption for sewer cleaning to the urban water sector in Queensland, join us to hear industry experts break down the background and regulatory framework of the exemption, the research findings on asbestos risks in wastewater networks and the development and implementation of a Safe Work Method Statement.

This is a must-attend event for local government representatives, distributor-retailers, safety managers, operational staff, and contractors involved in sewer cleaning using HPWJ.

More information and register here.

Arc Flash Risks

Thursday, 10 April from 10.00 to 11.00 am.

Tim Stewart, an electrical engineer at Unitywater, will share key learnings from Unitywater’s experience with arc flash incidences including:

How to assess and define arc flash risk
Developing procedures to keep staff safe
Tailoring training for different roles across the organisation

This webinar is essential for anyone involved in electrical safety, operations, or asset management in the water sector. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from Unitywater’s experience in managing a critical safety risk.

More information and register here.

Water Skills Forum Wrap

Last week, the Water Skills Partnership (WSP) hosted its eighth annual Water Skills Forum (WSF) at Parliament House, Brisbane. The event brought together industry leaders, policymakers, and water professionals to tackle one of our sector’s biggest challenges—ensuring we have a skilled and sustainable workforce.

A huge thank you to all our speakers and participants who contributed to insightful discussions, shared best practices, and explored practical solutions for addressing workforce and training challenges in the water industry.

QUT WISE Lab Tour

The Water Skills Forum kicked off with an exclusive tour of QUT’s WISE Laboratory. A big thanks to QUT for being such generous hosts and organising a great line up of speakers. The presentations exemplified how collaboration between the water sector and universities can drive innovation to help tackle the challenges we face. A big thanks also to the students for taking the time to prepare posters and explain their research to attendees.

Photos of the event are available here, with due credit to Hengbo Guo who kindly shared his photographs of the event with us.

HBT Information Session

A big thanks to KPMG for hosting the Health Based Targets Information Session on Thursday evening. Darren Brown, Assistant Auditor-General at the Queensland Audit Office talked about the QAO report with a focus on HBT recommendations.

Associate Professor Helen Stratton provided a great overview of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and the proposed introduction of HBTs, while qldwater CEO Georgina Davis discussed the merits of change and the challenges for our members. KPMG speakers included Director Infrastructure, Assets and Places Jim Grayson and Queensland Water Sector Lead Peter Beaton, who discussed governance and due diligence to the Drinking Water Regulator.

More information and download the presentations here.

Federal Election Manifesto

Our 2025 Federal Election Manifesto outlines five key policy positions that qldwater and its members wish to advance, and we invite all political candidates and parties to adopt these positions as formal political policy. The five priority policies include:

Protecting Wastewater Service Providers from unfair liability from Contaminants of Emerging Concern and focusing on source control.
Securing investment in urban water infrastructure through the National Water Grid Fund.
Protecting water infrastructure from Telecommunications risks by giving Water Service Providers the right to refuse carrier access and require pre- and post-installation engineering certification to ensure structural integrity.
Amendments to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 processes through industry exemptions, referral and assessment process improvements and establishing National Environmental Standards.
Addressing workforce skills deficits by including water sector roles on the Core Skills Occupation List and expanding National Skills Agreement funding beyond TAFE.

Read the Manifesto here.

qldwater Staff Update

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Neil Holmes who has returned to the UK. Neil has been an incredible asset to qldwater and the Queensland water sector across his roles as both the Industry Skills Advisor and the Water Skills Partnership Manager, building the credibility and professionalism of skills and workforce advice on behalf of our members.

On a positive note, we are happy to announce that Cass Cowley from the Department of Trade, Employment and Training (formerly DESBT) will be commencing as qldwater’s Industry Jobs and Skills Advisor from Monday 14 April. Cass and Neil have worked closely to further the skills and training interests of the water sector, so she’ll be able to hit the ground running.

We are excited to have both Cass and our new Water Skills Partnership Manager, Sarah Henry, to tackle the skills and job challenges and opportunities for the sector.

OTHER NEWS

Disaster Recovery

Our thoughts are with members affected by the recent (and ongoing) flood events.

The Queensland and Federal Government have announced funding support for the reconstruction of eligible public assets damaged as a direct result of a disaster. This includes emergency repairs and permanent rebuild to pre-disaster function.

Please contact David Wiskar if you require any assistance.

Water Research Australia Health Stream

Issue 114 of Water Research Australia’s public health bulletin is now available. This edition includes an update on the role of the water industry in maintaining good oral health of the population, how the Bureau of Meteorology is expanding national reporting on water and wastewater service providers and summaries on recent research papers.

Subscribe here.

Women in Water Operations (WIWO) Network

The Water Industry Operations Association of Australia (WIOA) invites women working in water operations to join a national network of mentors, collaborators and advocates to build an industry culture that empowers and celebrates women while working to reduce barriers and make water operations an attractive, viable and visible career path for everyone.

More info and join here.

End of an era for ACUARIO

WIOA have announced that their Water Industry Operator Registration Scheme and Acuario will cease on 1 July 2025. Member feedback suggested that the reduced commitment and interest was due to this being a voluntary system and not mandated in any state as a legislative requirement.

In line with member feedback, as well as operational costs and internal resources outweighing the benefit of keeping these systems going, WIOA have decided to end this service. WIOA will be supporting existing subscriptions while implementing an exit strategy, that will result in the end of this service offering on the 1 July 2026.

Any organisation can request a refund for any paid Registered Operator past the date of the 1 July 2026, that is linked to the Operator Registration Scheme.

CURRENT CONSULTATIONS

National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme

A reminder to all larger qldwater members that the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme consultation is open, with submissions closing on 11 April 2025. The consultation discusses including a market mechanism for biomethane injection into gas pipelines to reduce Scope 1 emissions of those that purchase appropriate certificates, in a similar manner to how large-scale generation certificates operate for the renewable electricity sector.

Critically, this consultation includes discussion on the introduction of amendments to wastewater methods to enable reporters to account for biosolids diverted to biochar production and an update to the N2O emission factor for effluent discharged to estuaries.

We also note that despite our advocacy efforts, the Wastewater Method 2015 expired on 31 March 2025. While the expiry of a method has no impact on existing projects that have commenced their crediting periods, no new projects can register or commence crediting after a method expires. Presently it would appear that the Committee are considering amalgamating the Wastewater method into the Animal Effluent Method.

If you would like to contribute to the qldwater submission or discuss further, please get in touch with Georgina Davis at gdavis@qldwater.com.au.

UPCOMING EVENTS

3 April – SCADA Micro-Credential Training, qldwater offices, Eagle Farm, Brisbane
4 April - HPWJ Webinar
10 April - Arc Flash Webinar
7-8 August - AWA NQ Conference, Cairns
12-15 May – qldwater Water Connections Tour
20-21 August – qldwater Annual Forum, Eagle Farm, Brisbane
10-12 September - WSAA Wastewater Source Management Network Meeting, qldwater offices, Eagle Farm, Brisbane
29-30 October – WIOA Queensland Conference and Exhibition, Bundaberg