Page 1763 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019

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(h) the Minister then decided to adopt a majority of the changes on 1 June 2019;

(i) doubts this raises over the Minister’s ability to consult effectively with industry and stakeholders; and

(j) the Minister still has a significant number of ACT Government building regulation reforms outstanding despite a firm commitment to have all 43 in place by the end of 2017-18; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) review the adequacy of governance resources for the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate to ensure its capacity to liaise with industry and assess its capacity to implement updates of construction standards and other building regulation reforms;

(b) expedite implementation of outstanding elements of the National Construction Code update; and

This is a pretty basic motion concerning the nuts and bolts of good governance and assurance for the building industry and the clients of that industry. I am pleased to report, for anyone in this chamber who does not know, that it looks as though we will reach some agreement on this today, the three parties represented here in the chamber. And that is always a good thing, I think. It is always a wonderful thing.

Of course the clients of the ACT building industry are the Canberra community itself. Our community needs the confidence that its building activity is supported by rules that guarantee construction is delivered to the highest levels of quality, functionality and safety. I appreciate that our industry associations work hard to meet these objectives. I would like to say that unions work hard to meet this objective. But they cannot do it alone. It is impossible because the government also plays a major role in this space. And everyone in this sector has got to work together to some extent. In relation to the government’s role this motion seeks that the government gets its role right, not only in terms of regulation but also in terms of consultation and clarity of stakeholder engagement.

I have moved, as I said earlier, a pretty simply motion here. It is a motion that calls on this government to perform one of its basic obligations, and that is to make sure that we have the right building regulations and stakeholder engagement processes in place. It is not the first time our side of the chamber has asked the government to have a go at this. As I recall, we were compelled to do something similar back in March last year in relation to the implementation of the government’s own building regulation reforms. There is a bit of deja vu on this issue and I fear that building compliance issues are not receiving the priority that they deserve, despite some improved efforts from the minister.

In this case, the specific issue is the recent treatment by the Minister for Building Quality Improvement in relation to updates of the National Construction Code. The

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