The Issue

What is this about?

The NSW Government is continuing to progress reforms to the building and construction sector through the release of a discussion paper, Building Stronger Foundations (the discussion paper). The discussion paper takes the first steps in implementing the NSW Government Response to the national report Building Confidence: effectiveness of compliance and enforcement systems for the building and construction industry across Australia (the Report).

Industry input is vital in perfecting these reforms and delivering on a stronger building and construction sector for building professionals and the community. We are seeking feedback on the scope of the reforms outlined in the Response and considers how they can be integrated into building regulation and the NSW planning and approvals system.

The comments received during this round of consultation will used to shape the design and scope of the reforms. Stakeholder feedback will also be used to work through the technical and practical issues raised by these reforms.

What has happened so far?

On 9 February 2018, the NSW Government welcomed the Report of Professor Peter Shergold AC and Ms. Bronwyn Weir. The Report was commissioned by the Building Ministers’ Forum in 2017 and produced 24 recommendations to improve the national best practice model for effectively implementing building regulation and the National Construction Code.

On 19 February 2019, the NSW Government committed to strengthening the building sector through its suite of reforms in response to the Report. The NSW Government Response outlines four key streams of reform work, which will collectively deliver a more robust regulatory framework for the construction of buildings in the state.

These reforms include:

1. Requiring categories of building practitioners who are registered as ‘building designers’ to declare plans and performance solutions are compliant with the Building Code of Australia, and that builders declare that they are built according to these declared plans;
2. Introducing a new registration scheme for these ‘building designers’;
3. Ensuring an industry-wide duty of care is owed to subsequent home owners; and
4. Appointing a Building Commissioner to act as the consolidated regulator for building in NSW.

Next steps

Fair Trading is seeking feedback on the discussion paper from Wednesday, 26 June 2019 to, Wednesday, 24 July 2019.

Once the consultation period has closed, feedback will be analysed, and all potential options assessed.

More information about the progress of the reforms outlined in the discussion paper will be made available on the Fair Trading website.

Have your say

Stakeholders and interested parties are invited to review the discussion paper and provide comments.

All submissions will be publicly available. If you do not want your personal details or any part of your submission published, please let us know in your submission.