Ankit Sharma: Master Builders CEO on the new rules cracking down on dodgy builders

The Government's crackdown on cowboy builders is seen as a step in the right direction.  

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says there'll be more transparency about suspended builders, stronger discipline, and an improved complaints process.  

Master Builders CEO Ankit Sharma told Mike Hosking the current disciplinary system doesn't provide enough of a deterrent as it's very slow, lacks transparency, and many consumers don't even know it exists.  

He says this will try to improve the system to a level where they can not only address the small instances of bad performance, but also provide more transparency to homeowners.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More details around shonky builders in the government's new self
certification proposal, so the Licensed Building Practitioners Board will get
greater powers to take action. Whole idea basically make it
easier and cheaper to build master builders, boss and kid
charmers will this morning to you morning. Make broadly speaking,
we head in the right direction. Absolutely, what sort of

(00:20):
mess are we trying to clean up? Or is there
not that big a mess? In other words, there aren't
that many shonky builders about the place.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I think the mess is as soon as you have
poor practice and something goes wrong. And this is a
small pocket of what happens around our industry. The impack
it creates it's quite significant, and not only it will
impact hormonners, it also impacts on industry reputation. And the
challenge we have had is the current disciplinary system has

(00:51):
some real limitations and it's very slow. It lacks transparency.
Many consumers don't even know about it that we have
a disciplinary process, so it actually doesn't provide enough return.
And all this is trying to do is to improve
the system to a level where there's we can not
only address there's small instances of bad performance, but provide

(01:13):
more transparency to homeowners so they can make good decisions.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
The Code of Ethics. There's four key things the minister's announce.
One of them is code of Ethics for building practitioners.
Do we need a code of ethics and does it
say anything substantive enough for me as a punter to
be confident?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, that's a very good point, so I'll an't say
it two ways. We definitely need a code of ethics,
so you need a standard which is very clear so
everybody knows how to operate within that standard. I think
the second point here raising mic is probably quite an
important point that there's a lot of lack of information
and knowledge. It's good to have a code of ethic,
but it doesn't help if ultimately consumers don't even know

(01:54):
that process exists. So in my view, many people don't
even know what a LBP is and that they the
disciplinary process. So as much as we need a good system,
and you know, we need a good disciplinary process, we
also need to make sure there's good information and education
and knowledge around it. And this is where I think,
along with all these stuff which the government is announcing,

(02:17):
which is very good, I believe as an industry we
need to take some responsibility too and create some systems
and information. WHI it's easier for homeowners to find out
that all this information exists, so when they are making
decisions around picking up a bill, they are starting a
new project, they're actually making informed decisions.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Good stuff and you appreciate it and glad we're here
going on the right track. In Kid Sharma Master Build
a CEO. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen
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