Page 3165 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 October 2022
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immediate monetary sanction for certain types of breaches; and prosecute offences under the act.
The occurrence of issues such as this shoring collapse underscores how important it is that building regulatory activity is adequately resourced. It is for this reason that, since the 2019-2020 financial year, Access Canberra has received significant additional funding to ensure the safety of Canberrans and to improve building quality. This includes budget appropriations of over $4.5 million injected into building compliance and quality, which includes 29 additional staff to provide new capabilities in structural engineering and building surveying, along with significant enhancement to existing functions, with additional building inspectors and investigators, positions for data and legal support, and officers to support communication and engagement with industry.
This increased resourcing has given Access Canberra the capacity to undertake improved assessment of building licensing and to better address building quality through holding licensed entities accountable. This funding has allowed more inspectors and investigators to be onsite during the construction phase, to establish the rapid regulatory response capability, to enforce regulations when responding to complaints, and to respond to increasing volume in the construction sector. It has grown the capacity of the agency to engage with industry and to use data to inform targeted regulatory actions.
Access Canberra now has in place a range of programs to hold builders to account, such as proactive inspections to improve compliance in the work undertaken by builders and building surveyors, and to protect the community through ensuring that licensees are meeting their legislative obligations.
Access Canberra conducts targeted audit programs when a pattern of behaviour or a significant reduction of building quality and code compliance is identified. Examples of targeted audit programs are those that focus on: a particular licensed entity, a problematic work component, higher risk building types or a geographic location. Indeed, the targeted audit program on works involving deep excavation that will commence in the coming days is another example.
Importantly, and as reflected by the incident in Dickson, this funding has allowed Access Canberra to grow its technical expertise with the employment of technical specialists, including qualified structural engineers and building surveyors to provide for an increased focus on building quality in medium- to high-rise commercial construction. This capacity allows Access Canberra to quickly, independently and with confidence assess defects by analysing the design and undertaking observations to make recommendations in terms of safety and compliance.
Increases in building and construction activities, combined with climatic and environmental challenges, will lead to an increased requirement for regulatory interventions. This means that the innovative regulatory reform work already funded and underway within Access Canberra is timely, and why the continuing investment into community safety and the liveability of our city is a core priority of this government.
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