Page 1771 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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importantly, owns up to the stuff-up. I think it is a positive thing that the government acknowledges what did not go so well. I hope the government has learned its lesson and will consult better in the future.
The building reforms are in the long run much more important. The Greens have been concerned about the delays in these for a long time. I regularly hear from distressed constituents about building reform issues. The bottom line is that people need to build trust in the regulatory system. We, as normal punters, cannot look at a building and say, “Has it been well built? Is it safe? Will it be waterproof if there’s severe rain?”—all of those things that we rely on the regulatory system to get right. Even more worryingly, maybe, we are building some really tall towers these days, and that is where it appears that quite a few of the problems are. The issues involved in fixing those and potentially demolishing them are rather worrying, to put it mildly.
The positive is that I am very happy to hear that the staffing of the building policy team has been increased to eight full-time equivalent. Last November, we know from annual reports, there was only one person, which was grossly inadequate, no matter how positively you may feel about Ms Morris. Given that, Mr Parton’s item 2(a) needs to be changed. We do not really need to review the resourcing, because they have just increased it. The ALP amendment replaces that with a commitment to better resourcing, which is a sensible alternative.
Apart from the fact that we need to have enough resourcing to build trust in our regulatory system, which clearly has not been the case in the past, the lack of building quality resourcing has also led to other important issues being on hold: the parliamentary agreement review of the EER scheme and the parliamentary agreement item on minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties. I look forward to both of those progressing now.
I thank Mr Parton for his very timely motion. I thank Minister Ramsay for his sensible amendment and, even more than that, I thank him for the fact that he now has some more staff employed in this area. Hopefully, things will get better and we will see rapid progress on building industry reforms and the energy efficiency work.
Amendment agreed to.
Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.
Adjournment
Motion (by Mr Gentleman) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Dr Enrico Taglietti—tribute
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (6.06): I rise to mark the passing of Dr Enrico Taglietti, and to advise members of a condolence book available for signing at the
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