When Australia’s state and territory building ministers meet again in Canberra this Friday it will be almost six months since they committed to step up work on the delivery of a national response to the Shergold Weir Building Confidence report.
The Shergold Weir recommendations are anything but controversial. They have enjoyed industry’s support from when they were first proposed almost two years ago.
Their implementation continues to be a work in progress and we’re urging ministers to step up their efforts.
Our industry’s commitment to quality needs to be supported by an effective compliance and enforcement regime. Governments should be doing more now with the tools they already have while work continues on a more effective and nationally consistent regime in future.
Overwhelmingly, people in our industry are doing the right thing and delivering projects of high quality that meet regulatory standards. There is no room for those who do the wrong thing. They are letting down their customers, our industry and the community as a whole.
Governments also need to focus on a national response to combustible cladding issues – something that wasn’t addressed at their last meeting and which continues to be a significant issue for industry.
Commercial property owners overwhelmingly want to get on and address cladding issues in their portfolios, but still don’t have a clear compliance pathway for rectifying their buildings. This issue is also key to insurance challenges facing practitioners.
The Property Council will continue to make the case for a comprehensive approach to these issues from Australia’s governments.