The PIA is a planning organisation that represents Urban Regional Planning in Australia and has had a tradition of being conservative in its governance as a representative body. It had unshackled itself from being called the Regional and Town Planning Institute, it later became the Royal Australian Planning Institute only to be renamed the Planning Institute of Australia.
I still remember standing at a educational stand representing planning and a parent coming up with his eager son (who wanted to do planning I could see the planning bug in his eyes) asking "Anybody can be a planner can't they? There's no planning police is there? He may as well be an accountant". ~/ Sorry for any accountants reading this, honestly!
I feel that branding these days is something that seems to follow a trend, the brand of PIA is still one of being a club that you don't really need to join to actively participate as a planner or to call yourself a planner. Anybody can be a planner. Its stuck in a world registration that other professions have moved past, a world that they have been able to transcend and nail down. How can this be addressed? To sway up this discrepancy, architects, building designers, engineers, surveyors, doctors and nurses to it, why not planning?
Does it need to go to the extent of creating a Architects Act 1985? Possibly not. You need to be a registered Architect to call yourself an Architect. Planning needs to address this final level of professionalism. In a obscure way, the Certified Practising Planner system is doing a great job but fails in one regard, it's unknown outside of planning circles. In simpler terms, there needs to be Planning Accreditation Board to have people ask, are you a certified Planner?
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