Chris Penk: Building and Construction Minister announces new measures designed to crack down on 'cowboy builders'

The Government has unveiled some new measures designed to create more consequences for 'cowboy builders'.

Tales of shoddy work have heighted concerns - encouraging the Government to introduce self-certification for builders and remote inspections.

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says more clarity is needed to alleviate these concerns.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now. The government this evening is announcing a suite
of changes to crack down on cowboy builders and on
shoddy work. This is beefing up the ability to basically
take the disciplinary action against dodgy builders. It's also going
to become easier to work out if a builder has
been suspended. Chris pink is the minister, he's with me now,
good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good evening to you, So talk us through it.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
What kind of action can be taken against a shoddy builder?
And how do you know who a shoddy builder is?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, good question. I mean, at the moment, there are
disciplinary boards that are meant to maintain standards when a
builder does poor work, but at the moment they can't
actually initiate their own investigations. And if councils don't tell
them about bad work that's going on out there, then
the cowboys and just to be clear, it's relatively few
out there, but the high profile cases make everyone nervous.

(00:49):
You know, they sort of go undetected and they recavoc
and what that means is that new Zellas don't have
so much confidence in the system as they should.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
So how will this change? What will be the process
then if it house will have to tell, are they
going to be forced to tell or what?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
No? No, I mean, I'm certain encouraging counsels to be
more upfront about that rather than simply complaining about, you know,
some bad work that's going on out there. And to
be fair, some of them are, but as with all
these things, that's a bit inconsistent out there. But not
only will the boards be able to initiate investigations on
their own account, they'll also have greater powers to take action.
So if they've given a training order, we're a bit

(01:27):
more you know, remediate action is needed on the part
of the builder to actually be able to enforce that.
They'll also be able to make it clear when there's
being disciplinary action because at the moment, the consumers a
bit in the dark. You know. You think your classic
young couple looking to buy their or build their first home,
and it's not clear on the website that that someone
who's lost their license building practitioner license for disciplinary reasons.

(01:48):
So a bit more clarity I think will help in
that regard as well on a buyer beware kind of basis.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Right, and who sits on those boards?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Oh well, I mean they're expert people who've got a
bit of background also maybe sometimes a legal background, and
the point of them is to do the occupation or
licensing stuff, and you know, we just need to give
them the tools. And actually partly it's about the powers
that they can exercise, but even having codes of ethics
so that when there is unethical action and you know

(02:16):
sometimes is for all or bad behavior or insolvencies magiced
away by a company closing up shop and then setting
up down the road else arounder a different name, so
there'll be a mechanism for that to be held to account.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Code of ethics sounds a bit wishy washy. Is that
actually going to make a difference? Is that actually, I mean,
what's in it?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, I mean, I think it's a suite of tools,
but it's basically I mean, you know, it sounds a
bit technocratic, but actually at its heart, it's about having
some standards that the reasonable person would think, well, if
I'm going to have someone take tens of thousands of
dollars as a deposit alone, put put more on the line,
you know, half a million dollar of a house new build,
for example, then there's got to be some standards and

(02:55):
accountability and again just to emphasize, most builders are actually
great people doing great totally of cowboys sort of ruin
it forever.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
So you hand your ten thousand dollars over they do
something unethical, what can you actually do about it with
the code of ethics? What's the practical application of it?
What do I do?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, well, I mean if there's a code of ethics
in place, and in a couple of instances, so electricians
and plumbers, there isn't one. So we need down a
place so we can say, well, actually, if you've behaved
in an unethical way, there's actually something to measure. It's
not just someone sitting on a board somebody's saying tut tut.
There's actually something against which they can be held accountable
in terms of the ten or twenty or more thousand

(03:35):
dollars worth of deposit, for example, on a relatively modest
renovation that might be. You know, that's at the moment
that goes back to that problem of the council being
on the hook for having signed off work if that's
done in a dodgy fashion that's not picked up. Okay,
part of a bigger reform that we do need to
do for that accountability.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Something happens to the new I've had a new bill built,
something goes wrong, either the guy takes off with my
money or they do a bad job on the roof. Whatever.
I go to this board, do I and I say, look,
they've breached the code of ethics. What can the board
then do to this person?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, they can suspend or cancel their license. And at
the moment, though, see that's actually not much good to you.
So your your question's actually a good one because that
highlights a bit of a current gap in the system.
Because that doesn't get you your ten or twenty thousand
dollars back. No, that doesn't get you deposit back because
it it doesn't get me a new roof. No it doesn't.
But I mean there are other mechanisms and unfortunately you

(04:33):
know the gaps in those as well, and so we're
looking at it the whole liver, right.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
But this is about dealing with the trade themselves. This
is about their registration, and so the moral of the
story is if they're not registered, then don't go near
them and check if they're registered first, because if they've
been deregistered, is for a reason great advice, all right, Yes, okay,
very good. Well, wish I didn't have to give it,

(04:58):
but there we are, Chris Pink building a construction minister
and I said you on the show. For more from
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