Editorial: Glacial pace of building reform is puzzling

We all know the wheels of government can sometimes move slowly.

But on the issue of regulation in our building and construction industry, the pace has been positively glacial.

In mid-2017, building ministers from all of Australia’s States and Territories agreed on the need for a national best-practice approach to regulating the building and construction sector in Australia, precipitating a review of the industry. The resulting report made 24 recommendations to address the systemic issues plaguing the sector, one of which was to implement the changes within three years.

That didn’t happen in WA.

Only now, six years after that agreement by States and Territories that a new approach was needed, has the WA Government announced it will finally introduce mandatory building inspections as part of moves to clean up the industry.

And the changes — which will at first apply only to high-rise apartments and commercial builds — won’t come into effect until 2026 at the earliest.

Stage two — to be implemented a minimum of 12 months later, so no sooner than 2027 — would extend mandatory inspections to lower-rise buildings up to three storeys. And single residential homes won’t be subject to the scheme until 2028 at the earliest.

The maximum fines for a range of offences — including carrying out a building service unregistered, failing to have a nominated supervisor, and non-compliance with building conditions — have been doubled to between $10,000 and $50,000,

In the years since the report was completed, many dozens of builders have gone bust, thanks in part to the lax regulatory environment. As has been exposed by The Sunday Times’ investigative reporter John Flint, it was these conditions that let cowboy operators flourish, through undercutting their more reputable competitors by cutting corners on cost and safety.

It’s one of the factors that has led to a towering scrapheap of builders, and a trail of devastated would-be homeowners with broken dreams in their wake.

With WA — and much of the rest of the country — in a housing supply crisis, we cannot afford to have more builders go bust.

So, while it is good the Government has finally recognised the need to repair the crumbling foundations on which the WA construction industry is built, the lack of urgency is puzzling.