Page 147 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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They are able to get on site quickly to undertake a preliminary assessment and to determine whether there looks to have been a breach in building or planning legislation. They can collect the evidence and take photos to help assist in further investigations. Since 1 July 2018, the rapid regulatory response team has resolved 66Â complaints, referred 18 complaints to other regulatory areas of government and escalated 44 matters to the building and planning compliance team for further investigation.
Their actions have led to a number of stop-work notices and demerit points being issued to builders and certifiers for undertaking unapproved works or unapproved parts of works. This team is helping the regulator to respond more quickly to building issues. They can help solve problems as well as issue notices to prevent work from occurring where it needs to stop. They are an advance squad of the regulator to get on site quickly and early and to provide information to the community more quickly so that the less complicated issues are resolved quickly and the more complicated cases are referred for full investigation.
MR PETTERSSON: Can the minister explain how this team and the data it collects will help us improve quality in the building industry?
MR RAMSAY: I thank Mr Pettersson for the supplementary question. The building regulator is using the data gathered by this team as well as that gathered by the rest of our building inspectors and through our other complaints channels to build a far more comprehensive picture of those working in the building industry. They will be using this data to target their resources to those who are not doing the right thing. That means that those who have complaints against them substantiated through the work of this team will shortly have their knowledge of the building code tested when they seek to renew their building licences. They should also expect to see inspectors on all of their sites across Canberra checking that the problems that have been seen are not being replicated across multiple sites.
Our building regulator is also using this data to build a picture of the types of issues we have in Canberra. They can then be used to educate the industry, our builders and our certifiers on the issues we are seeing. The registrar has already held an information session with certifiers late last year, on the issues we have been seeing with waterproofing, to help guide them on what they should be looking out for. The registrar will be having these sessions regularly to help inform the industry and help prevent poor work practices from proliferating.
This government makes its decisions based on evidence. We will be using the data to target our resources to lift the quality of building here in the ACT.
Schools—bullying
MR MILLIGAN: My question is to the minister for education. What protocols are in place in ACT schools to notify parents that their child has been a victim of bullying at school?
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