We have issued a media release supporting the Government's announcement that it will prepare regulations to register building engineers, but urging more reforms.
The announcement was made by Commerce Minister Roger Cook on Monday 18 July.
This follows the January publication of a regulatory impact statement that supported the introduction of registration scheme for engineers who perform four categories of building engineering work. These categories are civil, structural, mechanical and fire safety.
Our media release acknowledges that the Government's announcement addresses the first three recommendations of the Building Confidence Report and is part of a reform package to improve the regulation of Western Australia's building industry.
It goes further to quote our CEO Murray Thomas as saying, “This is a great step in the right direction, and we look forward to further reform commitments that drive higher standards across the entire building and construction industry.”
As our media release points out, we estimate the cost of rectifying building defects in WA to be $475 million annually, which cannot be tolerated or accepted as being normal in our industry.
This Association wants to see an end to the 'race to the bottom' that is responsible for a profit-squeezed industry that often delivers substandard work with little or no risk of penalties.
We are advocating for a range of sector-wide reform opportunities to drive higher standards in the building and construction industry, including
- Stronger enforcement of the National Construction Code with serious penalties for non-compliance
- Mandatory Continuing Professional Development training for each trade
- Improving the standard of theoretical and practical apprentice training
- Refining the focus of the Plumbers Licensing Board to target unlicensed operators and
- Introducing mandatory WaterMark Certification Scheme at point of sale
Read the full text of the media release
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