A leading academic and an expert lawyer have been appointed to examine compliance and enforcement issues in Australia’s construction sector to help ensure the ongoing safety of the nation’s buildings.
The Building Ministers’ Forum (BMF) today announced that Professor Peter Shergold AC and Bronwyn Weir have been commissioned to assess compliance and enforcement problems within the building and construction systems across the country that are affecting the implementation of the National Construction Code (NCC).
The Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Craig Laundy, who chairs the BMF, said the government, through the forum, was committed to ensuring that Australia continued to have a safe built environment that the community could have confidence in.
“Australia’s National Construction Code is among the best in the world,” Mr Laundy said.
“But we’ve got to work with state and territory regulators across the country to focus on stamping out the non-compliant installation of building products, such as combustible cladding on high-rise buildings.”
Mr Laundy said the two experts commissioned to examine these issues had exemplary credentials.
Professor Shergold, the current Chancellor of the University of Western Sydney, led an independent review of government processes for the development and implementation of large public programmes and projects in 2014.
Ms Weir, a partner at Maddocks law firm, is one of the leading expert lawyers in building and construction, with a profound knowledge of building control systems.
“We want to make sure our builders not only have the right products to do their job, but are also using the right products for the job, to ensure we can provide continued confidence in Australia’s buildings,” Mr Laundy said.