Member profile

Colleen Upton of Master Plumbers member company Hutt Gas and Plumbing was awarded in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List for her services to the plumbing and gasfitting industry and women. Colleen is pictured here with her 2020 Jackson Women in Plumbing Award.

COLLEEN UPTON ONZM

Colleen Upton, General Manager at Hutt Gas and Plumbing, was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List for her services to the plumbing and gasfitting industry and women. NZ Plumber talks to Colleen about her 29-year career and thoughts on receiving the award.

Colleen Upton got into the plumbing and gasfitting industry by chance when working with her electrician husband doing the accounts and bookings in their business. A job for one of the owners at Hutt Gas and Plumbing led to them asking her if she would type up their quotes, and so it began.

She did quotes, then wages, then invoicing and looked after the accounts— all on a contract basis—literally swapping buckets of paperwork. “I kid you not,” says Colleen. “I had a bucket at home and they had a bucket in the workshop. All the paperwork went into the workshop bucket, which I would pick up and then drop off the empty bucket.”

At this stage, she was working from home with three kids under four. As the hours increased she said she wanted to buy into the business and she did, becoming a Director 29 years ago.

“I didn’t have a burning desire at that stage to work in the plumbing and gasfitting industry but I knew that I liked to work with tradespeople,” she says. “They have an earthy honesty about them, and of course it didn’t take me long to fall in love with this industry and the people that work in it.”

Colleen went on to hold a broad range of roles in the industry. These include being a Hutt Valley/Wairarapa Master Plumbers Executive Committee Member, past President and current Secretary, and a former member of the national Master Plumbers Board. She has also served on the Plumbers, Gasfitters & Drainlayers Board and helped formulate New Zealand’s new plumbing qualifications as part of the Leadership and Governance Group and Qualifications Working Group for The Skills Organisation. In 2020, she was reappointed to the Weltec Advisory Board for Plumbing, Gasfitting & Drainlaying following a previous 10-year stint.

Championing diversity

Colleen is also a champion for women in the industry, saying there have been two motivating factors. “I have a granddaughter and I want her to grow up in a world where she can do and be whatever she wants, from a plumber to a prime minister, without having to take her gender into account. I want this for my granddaughter and for everyone else’s granddaughters, daughters, sisters and mothers. For that matter, I also want our sons to have the same choices and for gender not to be an issue for them either when deciding what they want to do.”

Several years ago, Colleen was approached by a young woman who had completed a pre-trade and had been to over 25 plumbing businesses seeking an apprenticeship. “Not one of them would even agree to meet with her,” she recalls. “She was devastated. I met with her and found out how passionate she was about the industry, how well she had

At a NAWIC event at Plumbing World Lower Hutt with Hutt Gas & Plumbing staff Nikita, Olivia and Amber.

Colleen with fellow Hutt Gas and Plumbing Director Scott Adin (left) and Contracts Manager Grant Jefferson with the company’s 2018 New Zealand Master Plumber of the Year trophy.

performed on block courses and that she had a dad who was a plumbing inspector. She deserved a chance and ended up being our first female apprentice. She worked out fabulously and stayed with us for eight years until she married and started a family.

“I figured that the young women who wanted to come into our industry were just not getting the opportunities they deserved and so Hutt Gas and Plumbing became a lot more open minded when looking for the best person for the job, and realising that they might easily be female! As of this January, we have three female tradespeople and one apprentice.”

There is still a way to go, however. “Women belong in construction—but are not always made to feel like they do. A basic thing, like toilets on site for women tradespeople would be a start—or even nongender-specific toilets. At the moment, any women working on sites generally have to go and ask for a key at the site office to use a toilet. Construction clothing is another area that needs to change, although I realise that it is an economy-of-scale problem. Women are shaped differently to men and men’s trade pants and tops are not always comfortable for women.

“We need to become open minded to gender, to ethnicity and change. I don’t think we will ever have 50% of our workforce on the tools being women, and I’m not advocating that. I’m simply saying lets be a bit more open minded about taking more women on the tools—diversity of thought and behaviour is a strength for any business.”

Passionate about apprenticeships

interest from my male colleagues and female colleagues about taking on female apprentices. To be fair, I’m excited about anyone wanting to take on apprentices full stop. This area of the industry is a real passion of mine: the opportunity to see young (and not so young) people start in the industry and grow in confidence and knowledge to become fully fledged tradespeople is just the most satisfying thing.”

Colleen says she is glad New Zealand has a Minister of Education who realises how smart and clever people are who make or repair things with their hands. “My hope for the future is that we have an education system that recognises this and that can measure it, so we see generations of potential tradespeople believe in their worth. The next year or two are going to be challenging for our apprentices and the apprenticeship system. RoVE is a moving feast and we need to make sure that we fight for a system that works for us and our industry.”

“We need to become open minded to gender, to ethnicity and change.”

COLLEEN UPTON General Manager, Hutt Gas and Plumbing

A champion of women in the industry, Colleen was awarded the supreme Helen Tippett Award by the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) in 2019. She is currently a NAWIC Wellington chapter committee member.

Award “a team effort”

Colleen describes receiving the news of the award as a bit of an imposter syndrome moment! “In the end, awards like this reflect on a team effort,” she says. “I couldn’t belong to the committees I do without the support of my business partners at Hutt Gas and Plumbing, and my husband who spends many evenings on his own! My colleagues at Hutt Valley/Wairarapa Master Plumbers and the wider Master Plumbers family have all helped me by sharing knowledge and encouragement. I think it’s always important to remember that none of us get to where we are by ourselves.

“I absolutely thrive on the passion in this industry—the willingness to share knowledge and help each other. My parents brought our family up with the ethos of ‘service to others—put back what you take out’ and I think this has served me well in this industry. Master Plumbers is also a great example of people putting back in to help others.

“I would love to take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped me in the industry and for the many lovely messages I received from the plumbing industry all around New Zealand on the announcement.”