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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 4386 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

with elements of the system of infringement notices for unlicensed people who carry out

construction work. I will ask the Attorney-General to make these regulations following passage of the other legislation in this package of reforms.

Legislative reforms include the repeal of the current licensing provisions in the Building Act 1972 and the Electricity Safety Act 1971. The other provisions of these acts are preserved, including those setting standards and approval processes for the work. The Building Act, however, Mr Deputy Speaker is very old legislation that has been repeatedly amended, and the opportunity has been taken to rewrite it in a modern language and address certain issues in its operation.

The Plumbers, Drainers and Gasfitters Board Act 1982 deals only with occupational licensing and will be repealed entirely. Standards for the work are already separate from the licensing requirements and appear in the Water and Sewerage Act 2000 and the Gas Safety Act 2000. The Construction Practitioners Registration Act 1998 is also repealed and necessary provisions are transferred to the new Building Act.

Many details of the legislative scheme are intended to be incorporated into regulations. The exposure draft included Construction Occupation (Licensing) Regulations. In the legislation that I am now presenting these regulations can be found as a schedule in the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Bill. This ensures that the regulations commence on the same day that the acts commence and is an administratively efficient way to deal with the initial regulations.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the rewriting of the Building Act necessitated the complete rewriting of the Building Regulations. This is also provided for by way of a schedule to the Building Bill.

Given the scale of amendment necessary to the Electricity Safety Regulations, it was considered desirable that these also be completely rewritten. This is provided for in a schedule to the Construction Occupations Legislation Amendment Bill.

Some of the comments on the exposure drafts propose changes not in the licensing system but in the legislation that deals with standards and approval processes for the licensed occupations. While it is important to keep construction occupations licensing reform separate from a back-to-basics review of planning, development and construction, the government has moved to address some of these concerns and has also made other small changes of its own in these areas to improve a more efficient regulatory system.

The most important of these government-initiated changes relate to liquid petroleum gas, plumbing plant certification, the commencement of building work and the issue of stop-work notices by building certifiers. Mr Deputy Speaker, the construction occupations licensing legislation covers both natural gas and liquid petroleum gas.

When it comes to standards and approval processes, the Gas Safety Act deals with natural gas while dangerous goods legislation covers the storage of liquid petroleum gas in cylinders. A regulatory gap remains for liquid petroleum gas installations as a source of energy in buildings. The consequential amendments bill for the construction occupations licensing legislation contains proposals to fill this gap and address an issue that is not on a large scale but does have the potential to affect public safety.

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