Building and Environment Protection Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 Second reading

Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): Thank you, Speaker, and it is lovely to see you there on the seat listening to our contributions to this very important bill, which I rise to speak on now. It is the Building and Environment Protection Legislation Amendment Bill 2019.

As you know, the Andrews Labor government is committed to ensuring Victorians can live in houses, townhouses and apartments that are livable, that are safe and compliant. We have been progressively reforming the building industry since 2016, and I have had the opportunity already in my first 12 months representing the seat of Northcote to speak on a number of bills in relation to building safety and making things fairer for people who rent or who own their own homes.

I note in particular the Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 and also the Building Amendment (Cladding Rectification) Bill 2019, which addressed the very serious issue of combustible cladding.

In the seat of Northcote, which includes the suburbs of Northcote, Thornbury, Fairfield, Alphington Preston and Westgarth, we have a booming population. That is no surprise because it is an awesome place to live. That has meant though that in some areas we have seen many new residential developments being built at a rapid rate, and my constituents want to know that development in our neighbourhood is both appropriate and safe and that building practitioners are doing the right thing.

For families that are themselves building homes or renovating them, this is also really personal. It is deeply personal because when things go wrong it can be hugely costly, it can be emotionally devastating and in the worst cases it can be really unsafe, so this bill will improve the regulatory regime in the building and construction industry.

Specifically, it modernises and strengthens the Architects Registration Board of Victoria. It winds up the Building Practitioners Board and transfers inquiries to the Victorian Building Authority (VBA). It strengthens financial probity requirements for building practitioners to enable greater scrutiny of company directors, secretaries and influential persons in the registration process as grounds for disciplinary action. It introduces a power for the VBA to immediately suspend the licence or registration of a plumber or a plumbing practitioner on public safety grounds pending an inquiry process. It introduces an expiry date for certificates of accreditation issued by the Building Regulations Advisory Committee. It modernises governance arrangements to strengthen building industry engagement and advice to the Minister for Planning. It clarifies the specification of builders in relation to specific building work as it applies to partnerships and makes minor corrections to the provisions of the Building Act 1993 that relate to the establishment of a register of private swimming pools and spas.

All of these things are important because, as we know, investing in a home is a huge step and a huge financial commitment. Often it involves the family’s whole life savings to take on the responsibility of a large loan. People have the right to feel like their investment is in safe hands, so when we see building practitioners doing the wrong thing it is devastating.

In relation to the part of the bill that strengthens financial probity requirements, this is about making sure that the applicant for registration to carry out building works is a fit and proper person. The bill amends the financial probity requirements to better enable the VBA to examine the conduct of practitioners that have been engaging in a pattern of behaviour that is illegal phoenix activity. For those who do not know, illegal phoenix activity is when a new company is created to continue the business of a company that has been deliberately liquidated to avoid paying its debts, including taxes, creditors and employee entitlements. This illegal phoenix activity impacts on business, communities, employees, contractors, the government and the wider community as a whole. Often it includes the non-payment of wages, super and accrued employee entitlements, getting an unfair competitive advantage over other businesses, the non-payment of suppliers, the loss of government revenue and avoidance of regulatory obligations—the list goes on.

In Victoria recent evidence does suggest that some building companies are deliberately going into external administration to avoid liability for building work following the completion of that work. So this is not a matter of simple negligence; it is people who are deliberately flouting the system for their own gain and without regard for the impact on others. The ripple effect of that is immense, not just for home owners and their families but also for workers who are doing the right thing and making an honest living—or trying to. That includes in many cases migrant workers who end up underpaid and without super and other entitlements.

In Northcote this year we held a forum on wage theft to hear from workers as we drafted legislation around that issue. In that case it was hospitality workers, but we know that there is a big issue of wage theft for workers in other industries too. On that point I do want to commend the work of our builders and tradies who are working every day and doing the right thing and making our state bigger and better.

Whether it is level crossings—we have committed to 75 of those now; Northcote is blessed to have completed the Grange Road level crossing removal, but we have also got more underway in Preston, with the huge project of four level crossings being removed at Bell Street, Cramer Street, and Murray and Oakover roads—or the recent completion of the immense piece of infrastructure which is the Chandler Highway bridge, now six lanes, and the restoration of the heritage bridge, plus of course our school upgrades, all of those things would not have been possible without our builders and our tradies.

I do want to come to the part of the bill which relates to swimming pools. In 2018 the government amended the Building Act 1993 to create a new regulatory framework for swimming pool and spa barrier compliance, and that was intended to make things safer in particular for children around swimming pools. There are far too many occurrences of children falling into swimming pools, and the consequence of that can be devastating.

Indeed I remember as a child I was playing in the garden of a family friend’s house and they had a pool and I did fall into it. I was under 10—I think I was around seven or so—and I did swim to the edge and get out, but it was very traumatising. I was soaking wet. I cried a lot. But it just goes to show that it can happen in an instant, and the consequences of that can be awful. I have got two daughters who are nine months and two-and-a-bit years old, and their grandparents have a swimming pool. It eases my mind to know that the pool is properly fenced and they can be safe around it.

A very important component of the bill relates to the establishment of a register of private swimming pools and spas. The bill will insert a definition of swimming pool into the Building Act that is consistent with the Building Code of Australia’s definition. These aspects of this bill offer the kind of clarity that we need to make things safer for all Victorians but in particular for our littlest Victorians with that pool aspect of it. It is about strengthening our planning framework and our building codes.

As the member for Northcote I do get a large number of constituents coming to me with concerns relating to buildings, building regulations and permits, whether that be problems with architects or builders or their planning permit approvals—the list goes on. Unfortunately in the municipality we have seen some pretty poor decision-making on the part of Darebin council in relation to a range of planning matters. We are a growing area and we accept that this means that more housing is needed, and indeed that means more apartment buildings. It is part and parcel of that, but planning does need to be appropriate and it needs to be holistic. We need to have a broad view of an area and for it not to be a piecemeal situation. We cannot overrun our suburbs and lose our neighbourhood character. I note that the member for Bentleigh spoke about height limits. They are an important part of it, but they are only one part of it. We have been subjected recently to the now infamous Darebin parking strategy, which was completely ill-conceived, and I am certainly glad to be seeing the end of that in Northcote.

In summary, I think there are a lot of components to this bill, but the main aspect of it is that it gives surety. I commended it to the house.