John Tookey: AUT Construction Management Professor on the government's crackdown on shoddy builders

A rising concern about shoddy builders has prompted the Government to roll out industry reforms.  

The Building and Construction Minister says relatively few examples of high-profile poor workmanship is tarring the image of tradies.  

Chris Penk has announced there'll be more transparency about suspended builders, stronger discipline, and an improved complains process. 

AUT Construction Management Professor John Tookey told Andrew Dickens it’s a step in the right direction. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we've got a slew of new government changes
which will hold cowboy builders more responsible for poor quality work.
Minister Chris Pink hopes that strengthening the Licensed Building Practices
Registrar will ease concerned about plans so let builders self certify.
So John Tucky is a professor at the Auckard University
of Technology. He specializes in construction management. He's got up

(00:21):
early for us.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, John morning.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
This is an international problem that has been discussed for years.
Why hasn't it been sorted out before?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Because in times when the cost of building goes up,
then it just becomes very convenient to go for a
chief option. And that chief option is usually somebody who's
not going to necessarily do all the detail work that
you need. And it looks shaddy accordingly.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, so let's have a look at yesterday's announcement and
remember we're kind of first in the world and this
sort of thing. Is it a step in the right
direction or is it window dressing?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, just step in the right direction. I mean, if
we're going to go down the road of self certification
for building works, which is perfectly reasonable, it's you know,
we we we assume a car is built correctly as
a for instance, you know we don't get a certification
an individual.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
You know, we need to get a builder in to
fix up your phone, and John has fallen off, so
we'll leave this at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to News Talks.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
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