Page 2820 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013
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This bill updates some of the disciplinary procedures and clarifies the demerit point system. It is certainly unfortunate that this type of legislation is needed, but I am sure that many people will sleep better knowing that this type of system will help ensure a high quality of building and construction across the ACT, especially seeing as once something is built, it can often be very difficult, and certainly very expensive, to rectify, not to mention the many years of stress for the owners or occupants of the defective buildings.
This bill inserts increased powers for the registrar to refuse to license an applicant if the registrar is not satisfied that the applicant, whether it be an individual, a partnership or a corporation, is not subject to disciplinary action, is prohibited from providing the construction service, or has contravened a court order, a condition of their licence or a rectification order. It also gives the registrar powers to issue licences for shorter periods than the maximum.
Although some of the consequences of having your occupations licence suspended are fairly serious, I believe that this is warranted, given the importance of ensuring a high quality of construction across the territory. The bill also outlines a number of licence conditions, including outlining that suspension of your licence also removes your ability to supervise trainees. There is a new section in this bill which introduces skill assessment of licensees, rather than the registrar having to accept an application on face value. He may now examine the applicant’s competence through a record of experience, an RTO test, or a test as approved by the registrar.
This bill outlines and clarifies the responsibilities and powers around compliance auditors gaining access to residences for compliance assessment purposes, and the need for occupiers to consent to the entry. In a similar vein, the bill also outlines powers of the registrar to access information that may be pertinent to construction occupations licensing issues.
There is a new section of the legislation which allows the registrar to determine a course of training for a specific construction occupation or occupation class. This is very important, as one of the findings of the Building Quality Forum was that some of the tradespeople had been trained in their field many decades ago, and some of the information had moved on rapidly. It is very important for the industry to be kept up to date with new standards and new information.
For example, when asbestos is found on building sites these days, I hear it is often the younger workers on sites who notice the asbestos as they have all been trained in how to recognise the various forms it comes in. If you had been through your training many decades ago, you would probably not have had such particular training. There are many areas in the construction industry which have new standards brought in, and it is important that we ensure that people are being kept abreast of these changes, and also have a mechanism to train people in new safety standards to ensure safe workplaces.
The bill brings the Electricity Safety Act into line with other occupations legislation through introduction of a reference to the Construction Occupations Registrar. The
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