Advancing professional recognition and mobility in the resources sector

Ensuring resources professionals can work seamlessly across Australia is critical to delivering safe, productive and globally competitive operations. As demand for skills grows across mining, processing and related industries, the ability to deploy expertise efficiently across jurisdictions will be central to the sector’s continued success.

The Federal Government’s National Competition Council (NCC), operating within Treasury, has sought AusIMM’s guidance as part of its Review of Australia’s Mutual Recognition Schemes for Workers. AusIMM has been engaged as the lead voice for the resources sector, alongside peer organisations from construction, health, legal and accounting professions.

The decision to reach out directly to AusIMM reflects the breadth of our work developing professional standards, delivering competency frameworks and shaping policy on workforce mobility, productivity and the growth of critical minerals and related value chains. These issues converge around a single challenge: ensuring Australia has a professional recognition framework that supports mobility while maintaining high standards.

The NCC’s interim report reflects, and cites, AusIMM’s recommendations. We have since provided a supplementary submission in response, reinforcing key priorities for reform and drawing on the experience of our members working across jurisdictions and regulatory systems. We wish to particularly recognise the contributions of our Chartered Professional assessors, who provided extensive insights as part of our contributions to the review.

You can read more about the review below and access our initial and supplementary submissions here.

Why professional recognition and mobility matter

As the peak professional body representing more than 16,000 resources professionals, AusIMM sees mobility, recognition and competence as fundamental to sector performance. The ability to deploy suitably qualified professionals across jurisdictions supports safe, efficient and responsible outcomes for industry, communities and the environment.

Improving mobility will also help address skills shortages, lift productivity and support more effective utilisation of Australia’s STEM workforce — particularly as the sector expands to meet growing global demand for minerals and materials.

Regulatory frameworks governing professions such as engineering, health and safety, and environmental management play a critical role in underpinning these outcomes. They provide assurance that practitioners meet appropriate standards, protect public and worker safety, and safeguard environmental, social and heritage values. At the same time, they give industry confidence in the capability of its workforce.

The current framework

While mutual recognition frameworks are designed to enable professionals registered in one jurisdiction to work in another, AusIMM’s submissions highlight that these arrangements are not consistently delivering their intended benefits.

In practice, implementation varies significantly across jurisdictions and disciplines. Key barriers include occupational exemptions, inconsistent state participation in mutual recognition schemes, and fragmented administrative systems. These issues create unnecessary complexity for professionals and employers alike.

Professionals working across states and territories are required to satisfy multiple registration systems - resulting in duplicate applications, additional fees, inconsistent CPD obligations and administrative requirements. Tracking differing renewal timelines, professional development requirements and insurance obligations adds further administrative burden.

Underlying these issues is a more fundamental challenge: a lack of alignment in regulatory requirements between jurisdictions. Differences in competency standards, assessment processes and legislative frameworks can limit the effectiveness of mutual recognition, even where it is nominally available.

In some cases, these inconsistencies also give rise to system risks, such as ‘jurisdiction hopping’, where individuals may seek registration in jurisdictions with less stringent requirements before working elsewhere. While evidence on the scale of this issue is limited, it highlights the importance of ensuring consistency and confidence in regulatory settings across the country.

Indeed, it is these underlying risks that have factored into the decision taken by some state registration bodies to not join the national mutual recognition scheme. AusIMM share these bodies’ broad view that regulatory standards cannot be lowered to enable mutual recognition. This is the basis for our strong recommendations on aligning underlying regulatory settings to the highest common standard nationally as an enabler for effective mutual recognition. Such alignment is an opportunity to deliver a more efficient registration system, enhance mobility and productivity and strengthen regulatory settings and professional accreditation.

Pathways for reform

AusIMM’s advice to government is grounded in the practical experience of our members and focuses on two complementary reform priorities.

The first is the progressive alignment of underlying regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions and disciplines. Mutual recognition can only operate effectively where there is confidence that competency standards, qualifications and regulatory safeguards are broadly equivalent. Achieving this alignment will require coordinated effort between governments, regulators, industry and professional bodies.

The second priority is improving administrative systems and processes to reduce duplication and complexity. There is significant opportunity to streamline registration, assessment and record-keeping through better data sharing and the introduction of a more consistent national interface. A single administrative portal, for example, could provide clear information on licensing requirements, enable streamlined application processes and reduce compliance costs for both professionals and regulators.

Importantly, these administrative improvements can deliver near-term benefits while the more complex task of regulatory harmonisation is progressed.

Maintaining standards and building trust

A central theme of AusIMM’s submissions is that reforms to improve mobility must not come at the expense of safety, environmental protection or community outcomes. The resources sector operates in inherently high-risk environments, where robust regulatory frameworks are essential.

For this reason, mutual recognition arrangements must be underpinned by consistent, high-quality standards. Aligning regulatory frameworks towards a highest common denominator will be critical to building the trust required for more streamlined systems to operate effectively.

By addressing both administrative inefficiencies and underlying regulatory misalignment, reforms can reduce costs, improve workforce mobility and support the efficient deployment of skills across Australia.

AusIMM’s role in shaping reform

The NCC’s interim findings demonstrate the value of AusIMM’s member-led contributions to national policy development. By engaging directly in consultation processes and bringing forward the expertise of our professional community, AusIMM is helping to shape practical, evidence-based reform.

Our Chartered Professional framework and broader competency standards place AusIMM in a unique position to support government and industry in designing recognition systems that reflect real-world capabilities and modern workforce needs.

As the Review progresses, AusIMM will continue to advocate for a balanced approach—one that supports mobility and productivity while maintaining the high standards that underpin safety, sustainability and community confidence in Australia’s resources sector.

We also acknowledge the significant contribution of our Chartered Professional assessor community, whose insights and expertise were central to the development of our submissions and ongoing engagement with government.