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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 4385 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

provisions allow a customer seeking the services of any construction practitioner to make an informed choice that includes knowledge of whether the practitioner holds insurance.

Mr Deputy Speaker, licensees will now be required to include their name and licence number in any advertisement for the provision of a construction service. In addition, a formal complaints procedure has been included which provides a transparent and equitable approach to dealing with complaints about licensees.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the tabling in June of exposure drafts for the new licensing legislation was followed by an extensive consultation program. In response, we have received written submissions from interested persons, including the principal industry organisations. It was evident that a good deal of effort and analysis went into the submissions. For the most part, the submissions suggested detailed improvements or alternative approaches where aspects of the legislation were not supported.

A number of the changes proposed in the submissions have been accepted and led to changes in the exposure draft that make it better legislation. Many of the submissions also touched on the implementation and ongoing administration of the licensing reforms. One focus was ensuring that the administration of the reform disciplinary process, in particular the demerit points scheme, was fair. The government acknowledged that these are entirely legitimate concerns and will be addressed during the implementation of the reforms.

Mr Deputy Speaker, some key changes to the bill, resulting from the consultation process, include:

specific requirements for the handling of records of past disciplinary actions;

addressing widespread industry concerns about potential overlaps between the construction occupations disciplinary process and processes under occupational health and safety legislation.

in response to industry concern that the number of demerit points possible before disciplinary action was too low, the bill now provides for 15 demerit points over three years instead of the 10 in the exposure draft,

specifying the qualifications and/or experience required of the Registrar of Construction Occupations; and

the requirement that the registrar must consult with advisory boards on changes to qualifications for licensed occupations.

Despite these changes, Mr Deputy Speaker, I recognise the keen interest that the industry will have in the operation of a regulatory scheme that, I think it is fair to say, is appreciably tougher than the present arrangements. For this reason, the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Bill 2003 includes a requirement to review the operation of the scheme two years after its commencement.

On balance, Mr Deputy Speaker, the government's assessment was that those industry concerns that were not addressed do not argue against the legislation going ahead. We consider that it is important to move forward now in partnership with industry.

I would now like to turn to the other components of the legislative package. The Magistrates Court (Construction Occupations Infringement Notices) Regulations deal

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