It took 20 years to get national licensing to the final sign-off and implementation stage.
Yet it only took a single COAG (Council of Australian Governments) meeting for it to be dumped and designated to the bin file in favour of mutual recognition.
Oh the joys of bureaucracy!
Its exhausting just thinking about decades of meetings, tedious paperwork and long-winded consultations.
Just over a year ago in the March 2013 edition of CCN, industry groups put forward their National Occupational Licensing System (NOLS) submissions in a special feature outlining implementation options.
Less than six months later, in August 2013, board chair of the National Occupational Licensing Authority (NOLA) Elizabeth Crouch delivered a special presentation at the CCN Live Conference 2013 on how NOLS would work in 2014.
At the event she said national licensing was a “no brainer” reform and called on conference participants to grab the opportunity with both hands.
“If we don’t do it now, another 20 years could pass,” she said. “We need to pull together and make this happen.”
Today her prediction about acting now or ‘another 20 years could pass’ seems almost eerie.
The good news is that a decision has been made, industry has been freed from further drawn out consultations.
The truth is not everyone in this industry was sold on national licensing. In fact one of the first emails I received after the COAG announcement was from the Australian Refrigeration Council(ARC) reminding me that licensing has been in place since the year 2005 and that the ARCtick Scheme actually works.
Clearly, technicians weren’t convinced NOLS would actually benefit them.
Revisiting presentations from CCN Live 2013 I saw the predictions that were put forward by participants that were asked to identify the big industry issues in the year 2025.
Industry veteran Kevin Lee was quick to deliver his top three issues, adding: “I bet we still won’t have national licensing in the year 2025.”
His crystal ball gazing skills have proven to be spot on. Who knows 20 years from now we could be discussing NOLS Version 2 at CCN Live 2034.