Behind the lights, cameras, glitz and glam of the Stormwater Queensland events brought to you by our wonderful events team, the Advocacy & Engagement (A&E) team are quietly advancing the organisation’s mission statement. “Stormwater Queensland has a mission statement?”, I hear you ask. We surely do.

Engaging the community, industry and government to promote and advocate for Queensland’s evolving stormwater challenges.

The A&E team seeks to advance this agenda by engaging with industry and government partners, at all levels. Month on month, we provide industry feedback on the release of major guidelines and other industry publications. We also take a proactive stance to seek out industry partners to improve the stormwater management framework, from on-ground practice through to regulation, enforcement, adaptive management and maintenance.

Being in the stormwater industry can be hard work and can take its toll on our many wonderful people. But there are also some great things happening, and exciting opportunities on the horizon. It was great to see some of these ideas and initiatives on show at the joint IECA and Stormwater Queensland conference at Peppers Noosa in early November of 2023. The conference served to remind us that we’re more powerful, can have more influence and be more resilient as a united industry. Our keynote speaker opening the conference, Simon Cathcart, gave an inspiring presentation that challenged us to create the environment necessary for true innovation. Simon differentiated this from evolution of existing ideas and paradigms, to being a monumental shift that changes our ways of operating, the way we live, and outcomes for our environment.

This, along with many other great presentations, served as a reminder that the time has come for us to take stock of what we’re doing, both as an organisation, and as an industry. Do we need evolution, or is it time for innovation? We will be seeking to re-engage with our wider network to understand our challenges and hopes for the industry, to see how we can help resolve these, or bring them to fruition.

We’d love to hear from our members about what matters to you, and what you feel you need from Stormwater Queensland. Feel free to get in touch with our committee members at any time, and if you’ve got any great ideas, burning desires, or endless frustrations, we’d love to hear what they are.
Feel free to get in touch with any of our committee members or contact our long-standing secretary David Simpson at Secretary@stormwaterqueensland.asn.au.

Faithfully,

Advocacy & Engagement Team