Building and Construction Industry Professional Development
Page: 8036
Mr THOMAS GEORGE (Lismore) [5.45 p.m.]: Tonight I wish to express some of the frustrations experienced by private builders, plumbers, electricians and other tradespersons. I have received a letter from John Inglis, and have been approached by Jim Cravigan and Tom Roache, regarding the problems they have experienced as three individuals in the building industry. I can do no better than to read the letter that John Inglis wrote to me entitled "Why you won't be able to get a builder soon". Referring to the Continuing Professional Development regulations recently introduced by the Office of Fair Trading, he wrote:
The new regulations, which come into effect on March 1, 2004 apply to all contractors in the building trades and require the completion of 100 points of professional development over 3 years with a minimum of 25 points per annum in order to renew a contracting licence. Details of these regulations can be found on Fair Trading's website.
Discussions with fellow tradesmen in the area have established that one builder is looking at $3000 in course fees per annum, plus time to do the courses.
For example a TAFE Certificate III in Business Administration is worth 10 points. This course is an 18 week, one day per week course with fees of $600. If I get five points for industry experience (contracting) I will need to do three of these courses or their equivalents every year for the rest of my working life to maintain my contracting licence. That works out to one day per week training, not including homework.
At present I am charging $45/hour. If you assume one day per week training, plus course fees, plus $3000 in associated oncosts per annum (vehicle, meals, books etc) this Continuing Professional Development will cost me $23,520 per annum. That is my gross profit per annum.
As I understand it these new regulations have been brought in to address quality control issues in the building industry. Over the past five years the government regulated inspection and testing regime has been dismantled and has been replaced with self-inspection or outsourced private certification of building work. No tradesman will dispute the fact that the quality of work has plummeted under the new regime and the reasons are obvious.
In the old days, cutting corners was not an option as your work was inspected by the regulating authority, and continued breaches would result in a letter asking you to show cause as to why you should keep your licence. Now, no-one is looking over your shoulder and the main driver on a job is the cost. Even the SAA Wiring Rules were changed in 2000 from a prescriptive (thou shalt do it this way) to an outcome-based (take our advice and please yourself) format.
To put it in perspective, it is the same as sacking every traffic policeman in NSW and expecting every driver to personally guarantee that they will abide by the law.
The only time that they come to the notice of the authorities is when they cause a serious accident. To continue the analogy, the authorities have noticed that the law is being broken and instead of reinstating the police they are requiring every license holder to go to school one day a week. For the rest of the week the license holders will be trying to make up lost ground.
How fast will they go? How many people will let their license lapse and keep driving? How many people will give up altogether?
Apart from the obvious failure in policy and the cost imposed on already struggling small businesses there are the practical considerations. I believe there are about 5000 electrical contractors in the Northern Rivers. If we all decided to do the Certificate III Business course at Lismore, Keen St would be grid-locked every Wednesday. If the plumbers and the brickies and the chippies and the plasterers and the tilers all wanted to do the same course there is not an oval in Lismore big enough to accommodate us.
These new regulations have to be rescinded. They are costly, impractical and do not address the issue.
That is the feeling of John Inglis of Lillian Rock, who sent his views to me. Similar concerns have been expressed to me by other contractors in the area who ask that this policy be reviewed.
Mr BRYCE GAUDRY (Newcastle—Parliamentary Secretary) [5.50 p.m.]: The honourable member for Lismore read out a complex letter, and I am sure he will take the matter up with the relevant Minister. The contents of the letter, which have been read into Hansard, will certainly come to the attention of the Minister.