This story was first published in the July/Aug edition of inspire magazine. 

Earlier this year, asset management guru Peter Way announced he would be stepping down from his position as NAMS Chair after 12 years. His replacement is Murray Erbs, a veteran of local government and passionate advocate for best practice asset management.

inspire: Murray, what do you aim to bring to the role of NAMS Chair?

Erbs: My primary aim is to continue the asset management conversation. It is important the conversation emphasises the role of asset management as being a framework for providing efficient and effective ‘core’ community services. We have had many years of developing an understanding of how to apply asset management to hard infrastructure such as roads, water supply, waste treatment facilities, parks and building facilities. I would like to extend this discussion to include the softer services provided by council. This would include investment in technology, management of coastal foreshores or even arts and cultural services.

inspire: Your career has seen you work across different states and in both regional and metro areas. How do you think this will assist you in your role?

Erbs: My varied experience brings an understanding of the public works environment across multiple jurisdictions. I feel I can relate to the engineer’s role whether working alone as the only qualified engineer in a small rural council leading a team of engineers in a larger urban environment. Councils that I have worked for include coastal, inland, rural (population 3000), regional (population 14,000) and city (population 140,000). I once tried to estimate the number of council meetings I have attended and lost count at 300-plus. Wherever I have worked, effective management of infrastructure has been important as the base for providing core services to the community.

inspire: In your experience, how advanced are asset management practices in Australia and New Zealand?

Erbs: Asset management practices in Australia range widely from only a basic understanding to advanced. I think engineers are mostly operating at core to intermediate level and many other parts of organisations remain at best as basic. Too many still think it is just something for ‘engineers’ and maybe also the ‘strategic accountants’. The challenge for engineers is to have sufficient resources and political support of their organisations to implement the required systems. In this regard, single service utilities seem to be more advanced than multi-functioned councils.

With respect to New Zealand, I have for many years recognised the pioneering expertise that they have in asset management and collaborative approach for continual improvement that we both share. 

inspire: What do you see as the greatest barrier/s to good asset management in local government?

Erbs: Local government has responsibility for multiple services. It’s a hard battle to compete against the non-infrastructure services provided by councils and political response to a lobby group or tomorrows headline. From my experience, the political will seems to take one, maybe two, steps forward and then one step back. There needs to be several elements in place – common national framework, legislation, political will, resource allocation and people on the ground who are skilled and committed to the implementation of an asset management framework that supports the services that they are delivering. We do need to remember that asset management is a means to delivering good community services. I like the idea of developing ‘asset and service management plans’ rather than asset management plans.

inspire: What do you see as the greatest opportunities for the NAMS Council, and for asset management in Australasia?

Erbs: The greatest opportunity is to continue to build on the outstanding legacy of Peter Way PSM and [former NAMS project manager] John Howard. Peter and John should be very proud of their achievements in establishing the NAMS Council and their role in developing NAMS.PLUS, the IIMM, the AIFMM and many supporting documents. I believe that I have been handed a responsibility to engage with the NAMS Council to deliver the best possible understanding of excellent service delivery for our communities.

To read the original story plus plenty more, see the current edition of inspire magazine here.