Page 4392 - Week 14 - Thursday, 28 November 2013
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Licensees have undertaken relevant training and should be well aware of their obligations. The offences with the highest penalties in the bill are for licensed people that knowingly or recklessly carry out building work in contravention of the act.
The bill also makes the existing strict liability offences in sections 42A, 49 and 51 fairer because they will be restricted to construction licensees only and will not apply to landowners.
I recognise that landowners and developers can intentionally breach the requirements of the Building Act or commission work that they know will not comply. The bill also includes penalties for landowners in such situations.
In addition, the bill will increase the penalty for intentionally failing to comply with a rectification order from 200 penalty units to 2000 penalty units, or from $28,000 to $280,000 for an individual and from $140,000 to $1.4 million for a corporation.
The cost of rectification work may extend into the millions of dollars, especially on large and complex structures. Ideally, most building defects should be rectified without needing to issue a formal rectification order. If an order is required, it is important that the penalty gives sufficient incentive to the person to comply.
The bill also provides new grounds for the Construction Occupations Registrar to authorise a person other than the licensee that did the initial work to complete a rectification.
At present the registrar may only authorise another party if it is not appropriate for the licensee to do the work because of the relationship between the licensee and the land owner. However, the registrar should have confidence that the person that is given a rectification order can either carry out the work or arrange for the work to be carried out.
The new provisions allow the registrar to consider whether the person could reasonably carry out or arrange the work when deciding to issue a rectification order. This would reduce the chance of rectification work resulting in further public health, safety and consumer protection risks.
A further amendment allows the registrar to take an immediate occupational discipline to protect public safety while awaiting the outcome of an application to the ACAT for an occupational discipline order. Disciplinary actions by the registrar are reviewable.
The bill also includes amendments to the Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living) Improvement Act. These amendments reduce reporting requirements for retailers that do not operate in the territory and provide a clear process for Tier 2 retailers electing to pay an energy savings contribution under the act.
The bill amends the Electricity Safety Act to reflect the transfer of certain product energy efficiency standards to the commonwealth under the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Act 2012. It also modernises the regulation-making powers for electricity safety.
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