This was the position of the NSW
Liberal-Nationals O’Farrell Government in May 2013 after reviewing
changes made to state building regulations and
certification:
As
the Government’s April 2013 White Paper – “A New Planning
System for NSW” points out, building regulation and certification
are a significant part of the NSW planning system.
The
general outcomes that regulation and certification seek to secure are
two-fold. First, a level of building performance consistent with the
needs of an advanced society in terms of health, safety, amenity and
sustainability and second, compliance consistent with planning
expectations as defined by the planning system.
The
current system of certification has evolved from the introduction of
private certifiers in 1998, enabled by amendments to the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A) and
Regulations. Following the 2002 Campbell Inquiry into the quality of
buildings, administrative changes were put in place within the then
Department of Urban Affairs and Planning for regulatory oversight of
certifiers and in 2005 the Building Professionals Act established the
Building Professionals Board (BPB), which took over this function.
Subsequently,
there have been numerous legislative amendments and changes to
regulations relating to certification. These have been essentially
accretive and so the legislative framework has become unnecessarily
complex and in some cases no longer relevant. With the establishment
of a new planning system, the opportunity presents to take a fresh
look at arrangements which have essentially developed as flow-ons
from the last major reforms dating back to the 1979 commencement of
the EP&A. Accordingly, the well established principles of
developing regulatory systems that are efficient in an economic
sense, as well as effective having regard to ease of administration,
achievement of desired outcomes and minimizing the compliance burden,
should now be applied……
It
follows that improvements to building regulation must have regard to
regulatory impacts such as cost and effective administration and
ensure that certifier resources can cope with a higher level of
activity.
However,
regardless of the effectiveness of improvements that can be made to
regulation, building construction
risks are best managed by the builder and outcomes for
consumers will depend on the clarity with which the roles and
accountabilities of all the participants in the process are specified
in statutes and regulations. [my
yellow highlighting]
By 2013 private building certifiers were estimated as issuing at least 50 per cent of all building approvals, according the NSW Dept. of Planning & Industry.
In 2019 the wheels fell off this particular ill-advised policy change, with reports of private certifiers acting like cowboys and forced evacuations of defective, dangerously unstable multi-story apartment buildings.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July 2019:
It
gives me no pleasure, watching the looming disaster that is the NSW
construction industry, to say we told you so ("Toxic
secret kept from unit owners",
July 20-21).
In
the early 2000s, along with my local government colleagues, we begged
the NSW Government not to deregulate the supervision of building
construction and give it over to private certifiers paid by the
developers.
We
warned it was putting the "fox in charge of the hen house"
and would result in poor quality buildings that failed to comply.
Decades
later successive state governments have ignored thousands of
complaints from the community and numerous private certifiers
declaring themselves bankrupt to avoid liability.
The
industry is failing the consumer with all the benefits flowing to
developers. The only real solution it to put government back in
charge of regulation of the building construction process and that
can only be done efficiently by a local authority. - Genia
McCaffery, former president Local Government NSW
The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 2019:
Professional indemnity insurance premiums have skyrocketed following the discovery of severe defects at a string of apartment buildings in NSW and Victoria's flammable cladding problems, and other types of building insurance products are expected to follow.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 2019:
Professional indemnity insurance premiums have skyrocketed following the discovery of severe defects at a string of apartment buildings in NSW and Victoria's flammable cladding problems, and other types of building insurance products are expected to follow.
