Page 744 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 April 2014
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (11.46), in reply: I thank members overall for their support of this bill. This bill makes amendments to the Electricity Safety Act to expand on the territory’s powers to make regulations for the energy efficiency of electrical equipment and it also streamlines electrical safety product approval regulations in the ACT. Other amendments help the energy efficiency improvement scheme’s operation and, in particular, the scheme administrator being able to carry out their functions provided for under that act.
Most importantly, this bill makes amendments for the protection of consumers of construction services in the territory. The bill provides for the Construction Occupations Registrar to keep registers of information on all construction licensees. This information can be made available to the public currently, but the act does not provide any guidance as to how the information should be disseminated. Because of this and obligations under privacy and other legislation only a small amount of information about licensees is currently available to consumers.
Consumers are able to look up information on current licensees to confirm if they are licensed. The lists published on the internet include the licensee’s name, licence number, occupational licences held, licence endorsements, any conditions and expiry. While this information is useful, it does not give consumers any information about the licensee’s compliance history, ongoing action or any enforcement action against them.
I would say that it is in the consumer’s interest to know whether or not the Construction Occupations Registrar has taken action against a construction occupation licensee for failure to perform their duties and has undertaken any enforcement or disciplinary action against them.
I note that Mr Coe has some amendments and that Mr Coe’s amendments are designed to ensure that information on occupational discipline against a licensee is only listed on the register when all reviews of decisions in relation to those actions have been exhausted. The government’s position is that we do not support these amendments because the registrar only takes action against the licensee in the first instance after a “show due process”—in particular, a show cause notice to a licensee—and the process of review in the ACAT can be a lengthy one.
There are instances now where builders who have had occupational discipline measures put in place against them and noted on their licence seek review in the ACAT. That review can take many months to complete and consumers continue to engage a builder without knowing that they are subject to disciplinary action. I think consumers would want to know that. I think consumers would want to be aware of whether or not the builder or other professional that they are seeking to engage is subject to a disciplinary proceeding. I think consumers are entitled to know that information. So the government will not agree to Mr Coe’s amendments today.
The type of information that the government wants to see made available for consumers includes the names and licence numbers of nominees for corporations and
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