Chris Penk: Building and Construction Minister on the Government's new scheme allowing tradies to sign off on own work

A promise tradies have to get it right when they sign-off their own work under new rules.

The Building and Construction Minister has announced a scheme to let approved firms and tradies like plumbers and drainlayers self-approve work on simple residential jobs.

Companies deemed reputable could opt-in.

Chris Penk says they'll have to undertake a process of promising quality.

"And there will be standards, obviously, that they've got to continue to meet, they've got to have the right sorts of assurances and insurance in place as well - so they've got every incentive to get it right."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. The government's hoping to speed up building work by
giving builders, plumbers and drain layers the power to inspect
their own work. It will also introduce mandatory targets for
inspection wait times by the end of the year. Chris
Pink is the Building in Construction Minister and is with
us now, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Chris, Hello, good afternoon to So who's.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Going to be able to self certify?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, in the case of plumbers and drain layers, it'll
be experience qualified registered personnel who are able to tick
all the boxes that are already met by electricians and
others who are already self certify. And actually they in
some cases are already able to do their own work
in relation to drain excuse me, gas fitting work. So
just really creating a level playing field there. And then

(00:40):
in terms of building companies, we haven't named the companies yet.
They've got to meet the criteria that we're going to
set out. But think those that are building at scale, reputable,
good track record, good and solvency or solvency position rather
so they can be trusted to sign off their own work.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I mean, the problem is, though sometimes you can't see
the mistakes that you make right, isn't there value in
having a set as a second set of eyes on it?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, Well, having a good quality assurance process that they
would undertake is part of it. And there will be
standards obviously that they've got to continue to meet. And
you know, they've got to have the right sort of
assurances and insurance in place as well, so they've got
every incentive to get it right. And you know, between
that and ordering kind of arrangements to make sure that

(01:23):
they remain on the straight and arrow, we're really confident
will add up to actually at least as good quality
as we've got at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now, the mandatory targets for inspection, right, you want eighty
percent of the inspections to be done within three working days.
How close is that to what is happening at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, it depends actually counsel by counsel, which is another
story for another day in terms of those being quite variable.
But in some cases, actually we're okay. In other cases
they will find it challenging and those are the ones
that need to spend more time and efforts taking a
risk proportioned approach, which means using remote inspection kind of
technology and so on. But actually we're really hopeful that

(01:59):
it will be easy enough to meet for those councils
that are well organized and doing their work, partly because
one in every three inspections at the moment is in
relation to plumbing work, which, as we've just been discussing,
we won't require old mate from the council to turn
up with a clipboard to look at as well.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Chris, thanks very much, appreciate it, Chris, Building and Construction Minister.
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