Hi TS.  That's an interesting comment about the Federation being unprofessional and it is noted, so I will bring it up at the next committee meeting for discussion.

All I can say from a personal point of view is that you don't have to be a suck up bureaucrat to be professional. With limited resource's all you can really do is identify the problems and suggest solutions.  It's up to the so called "professionals" to take action.

From a personal perspective I would sooner be unprofessional and have honesty and integrity than to be labled  professional and be dishonest and have no integrity.

If people are too thick to take note from hints and direct comments then sucking up to them isn't going to work but any suggestions are welcomed. Log on to the Federations website and send me comments and suggestions if you like or post them here.  Either way we will get to reads them.

In closing I feel its better to do something than to do nothing. 

As i see it there are many ways to get action or an outcome of of any govt orgisination...one is to take them to court, one is to cause disruption to the community by way of rolling roadblocks...for example the farmers in europe when disgruntled with there govt roll up and block roads with there rigs causing mass delays and lots of lost revenue to the govt by way of bussiness and tax take...for a small fine you can cost the govt millions and millions and sure enough you will bring the situation to head and get an outcome either way.
and by the looks of this govt words continue to fall on deaf ears..so action is the next tool in the bag...as i see it we will need maybees a few million to rearly throw the arm of the law at the govt in court, or we can take the fight directly to them and hit em in there pockets where it will rearly hurt...a mass refusal to pay fees for example would bankrupt the board pretty damb fast and as well do you rearly think they will be able to conduct 700 odd investigations with assoiated fees etc and prosecute everyone before they roll over bankrupt...as i see it the power is actually in our hands not theres as it is them that depend on us for there exisestance.
These are actual avenues that we need to explore and serriously as it gets further and further along from the OAG's report and we have seen very very little improvment in the situation in fact it has gone backwards in some areas...
We WILL need to take decisive action soon, they sit there on there high horse looking down on us as a bunch of lowlife unprofessional trouble makers looking on with contempt not taking us serriousley well that contempt will be there down fall...all empires will one day fail and fall because those in power held the commoners in contempt never realising where the real power actually lay...be it on there heads when they fail to truley listen and fix there s**t be it on there heads when they force our hand because the true power has always lay with the people you know it i know it and they fail to realise it...just look around the world how many govts have been over thrown latley when those that have been oppressed for many generations finally realised where the power actually lay and that all started with a disorginised bunch of unsatsfied unprofessional people that caused a whole govt to be overthrown so you rearly dont have to be all professional to take action...and court is only one of many avenues still open to us.
We must live by the saying...Togeather we stand devided we fall!....whatever we decide to do we must do togeather even if some of us not fully behind the action decided upon. we must act as a single unit to be strong.
 this is only my view of this situation anyways

TS - I am interested in your comments too.  "Unprofessional"?  Do you mean becasue there is no paid CEO or full time employees?  Do you mean becasue the organisation is young and still smoothing off rough edges?  Do you mean because of the "tradesman like language" that communications come out in?   These things are all true for the Federation - there are NO paid staff, just an executive of volunteers who put many, many hours in researching, writing letters and attending meetings - all at their own cost.  I believe this group has made a difference for many tradespeople across the country.  I also believe there is much room for growth for this organisation and with over 850 members and another 20 or so interested parties - it has grown enormously in 12 months.  There must be a need for it or else it wouldn't exist. 

For one thing I believe the Federation is one the only organisation that gives trainees and licensed practioners the same equality of voice as business owners - everyone is equal and everyone's opinion is valued.  There is no other organisation like this representing apprentices for example.   Sure, the rough edges need smoothing, but then this is an asset to the organisation as well.  They represent the views of the employees, the everyday practitioner.  When you look at the responses to the PGDB consultations of recent times - the Federation has had a huge percentage of members respond.  They have engaged with this organisation and supported it.  If you have any ideas about how the Federation could improve, then make them becasue no one claims to know everything, and every fledgling organisation needs to listen to criticism in order to grow and flourish.    As far as the court issue goes - I think this is where it may all end up, but I also think that every attempt needs to be made prior to that as well - it will cost a lot of money to do this and practitioners already have high costs and with the recent recession not too many have too much to throw around.  All things take time - and that is something the Federation does have.

hi guys,  The Board has identified 1,400 individuals who appear not to have a current” Authorization to work”. What a sad statement this is. It is as if work is so scarce that we have to have authorization from a heavenly body and be able pay a lot of money for this privilege of earning a living, it kind of defeats the purpose, cheers

Well said Wal.

TS you may work for council or government at whatever level but the Fellow Practitioner is written for tradesmen not shiny arse bureaucrats, if they don't like calling a spade a spade then get the F*** out of the industry's way and let some one who has even half a brain in there so we can get some of this sh*t sorted out.

Some of you are taking my comments personally obviously.

Bottom line is if you want change you have two options. The courts or the Minister.

With both of them how professional you act counts for a hell of a lot unfortunately and if your not taken seriously or dismissed as radicals you won't win. IMO some of our comments and behaviours in the past that I've seen would be the equivalent of Hone Hariwera,Sue Bradford or John Minto. If your on the outside looking in which is the case when your viewed by the Minister or a Judge. Those three as examples actually stand for a number of good things but does anyone take them seriously or respect them?

We are looking like the Mana party of the plumbing industry

IT IS PERSONAL..... IT IS OUR LIVES AND FAMILIES

when people marched against work houses and slave labour they were viewed as radicals and bucking the system and messing with the upper class's gravy boat. Which was all legal but morally corrupt, these clowns are acting illegal and are morally corrupt.

I have been trying to tell the Board that the cert system was open to abuse since 2003, and was being abused by my old boss, they waited until an explosion that nearly killed some one to take action.......they took action against me!!!!!!!

I was proved right at a very biased hearing but still they hounded me in public.

Listen here, I will act professional when they act professional...........how long do you give them??

TS you haven't answered my question, until you have it effect you personally then it is easy to pass judgement. I am proud to know people who get emotional and rock the boat.

If it wasn't for Wal and the Federation I would have been totally screwed, especially by "professional" acting lawyers, I was told by my own lawyer and his QC mate to plead guilty for something I hadn't done, very professional!!!!!

Ts you sound like you have horse blinkers on saying things like this..."Bottom line is if you want change you have two options. The courts or the Minister."...as i have said before there are many more ways to get action than the traditional pompus channels of bureaucracy....this is where the govt officials like to do there fighting BECAUSE as you well know that they have endless pockets feed from the very people that have complaint aghinst them...as i have said the most effective way to fight something that depends on the very sweat of others labour is not to yield a cent to them and make a stand...as soon as there slush fund starts to run dry then they will have no power but the power to listen and fix this rotten system...would i be jumping up and down if this was a publicly funded pgdb NO i would not...as it should be...as a lawyerish dude you seem to be then you should know on the principal of user pays that the pgdb should be funded from the plublic sector AS the pgdb ONLY exists to aid the public...there is not one atom in the pgdb that is there to serve the actual pgd that do the work so why do we pay for it?.
You imagine if all of a sudden people on mass stopped paying there rates as a measure of protest you would be out of a job quick smart, wouldnt you!.

I am sugguesting that on mass we tradespeople actually stand our ground and on mass refuse to pay into a system that quite frankly is stiffled by bureaucrats such as your self!.

This is only an observation...but the problem with people like you is the sole fact that paper and words rule your life and once in a blue moon you decide to do something to justify your job for another term...while the masses out there suffer because of your inabilty to pull finger and become an ACTUAL citizen that actually produces instead of leeching off others for your life and pretending that you are above the actual producers of this world because you know how to be a literal w**ker and confuse lay people with terms that can easily be termed in common words...having exerlent grammer and lingustic skills means crap to real face value people like us, look at it this way ts when you bleed you bleed red just like the rest of us, when you take a dump you gotta wipe your own arse just like the rest of us. I will never yield to those that fasley think/believe that they are supperiour to me based on a very simple fact of launage and pompus action.
This is only my view of this situation
"We are looking like the Mana party of the plumbing industry"..this is ok with me because the mana party started with a foul mouthed angry person who had a passion for change and now look at him hes a dambed member of our parliment with the title of hounurable...lollololol...INTRODUCING the hounourable Wal Gordon...hehehe ...and woohoo look he has just got the building and housing portfolio now the people at the pgdb would start to worry wouldnt they lololol...may my christmas wish come true!.

And i reckon if you dont display passion(which is so easerly misinterpeted as anger) then you rearly dont care!.