Page 1595 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
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and what is in place in other jurisdictions. Work underway now also relates to potential licence scopes and the development of an effective regulatory model that is suitable for the ACT.
We remain committed to this scheme and we will consult with stakeholders in the community and in industry over the course of the project, for implementation within the next term of government. This work is in addition to the substantial reforms that we have already introduced for building projects and unit titled developments.
Madam Speaker, we have seen too many cases where property developers have forced other parts of the industry to cut costs and influence process, only to eventually wind up projects and leave owners with the bill for their dodgy work. Canberrans should not have to chase non-existent companies for building defects while the culprit is able to wind up one company and continue to operate in our community. The developer licensing scheme will help to ensure that we break the chain of phoenixing and prevent developers from influencing the building process, taking the profits, winding up their company, and walking away.
Madam Speaker, the government also undertook to progress work in relation to the registration of engineers in the ACT. For building-related fields, the government’s review of the building regulatory system found that there would be benefit from regulating certain scopes of engineering work. This has been further backed up by findings of the Building confidence report commissioned by the Building Ministers’ Forum. Design practitioners, such as engineers, should be accountable for the work they do and any contribution it makes to non-compliant and defective buildings.
The government’s building reforms have established minimum requirements for design documentation. These new requirements have also been incorporated into a new auditing tool for use in regulating building projects.
In parallel, we have started consultation with engineering stakeholders on a registration scheme. The next round of consultation on this will consider the detailed aspects of the scheme and bring the process to the point of developing the model for registration of engineers in the ACT. The government is committed to introducing a regulatory scheme and associated framework for the accountability of engineers within the next term of government.
As part of the current reform program, we also committed to address other issues that were not directly addressed in the building reforms program but were identified during the review of the ACT building regulatory system. This included the privatised building certification system.
The government has begun further work in relation to a new model. This work will develop a public sector or government-run building certification service to run alongside private certification services currently available. We will also look to make the use of such a service mandatory in circumstances such as particularly complex or high-risk buildings.
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