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Katie Woolf spoke with Master Builders NT CEO Dave Malone · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf thanks to Joyce Main Dowin
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  Speaker 1: homes Own, Stuart Highway, Beerrimer.
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  Speaker 2: There's certainly been a lot making news headlines over the
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  Speaker 2: last few days, so some of you may have missed
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  Speaker 2: the fact that the government has announced that they're set
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  Speaker 2: to prioritize reforms to building regulations well as they say,
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  Speaker 2: to give the community even greater confidence in the local
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  Speaker 2: building industry. But what does this mean for the industry? Well,
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  Speaker 2: joining me live on the line, Master Builders NT CEO
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  Speaker 2: Dave Malone. Good morning, Dave, good a, Katie, how are
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  Speaker 2: you really well, Dave. I think this announcement was made
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  Speaker 2: about four days ago, so some of us may have
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  Speaker 2: missed it. I'm sure you didn't, though. What does this
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  Speaker 2: mean for the building and construction industry?
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's the first step, I think in a program
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  Speaker 1: of reform that we'll see hopefully over many years now, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's been a long time since changes are made
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  Speaker 1: to the building and construction industry, and the Minister evil
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  Speaker 1: Law stood up and said, well, the first three, the
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  Speaker 1: first three changes that she'd like to see. The first
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  Speaker 1: of those is a third party review of the engineering
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  Speaker 1: work on major you know, commercial buildings, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: we would have all followed the story of some of
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  Speaker 1: the problems we had over the last few years with
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  Speaker 1: high rise buildings. There's also continuing professional development for building practitioners,
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  Speaker 1: so architects, engineers, plumbers, and builders. And the last one
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  Speaker 1: is registration for commercial builders, which you know our industry
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  Speaker 1: was pushing for almost twenty years ago. So it's good
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  Speaker 1: to see it get to the top of the list.
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  Speaker 2: And do you reckon most in the industry will be
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  Speaker 2: quite happy with the you know, with the changes that
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  Speaker 2: are set to come into play.
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  Speaker 1: That's the million dollar question I think. I think when
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  Speaker 1: I talk to my members, they definitely backed the idea
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  Speaker 1: of this sort of reform, so that's not an issue.
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  Speaker 1: But I think there's a group of people in our
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  Speaker 1: industry who believe they do a good job and they
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  Speaker 1: don't need anybody looking over their shoulder, and they probably
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  Speaker 1: don't feel the need to get license and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: So I think you'll get a mixed response, to be
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  Speaker 1: really honest, But for people who don't get involved a
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  Speaker 1: master builders think, by and large you're going to find
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  Speaker 1: them saying these are good reforms.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess some will be questioning whether it's just
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  Speaker 2: another added layer of bureaucracy.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I think we've spoken before that Australia is
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  Speaker 1: the gold standard when it comes to complexity for running
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  Speaker 1: a small business. The small business regime requires people to
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  Speaker 1: know so much about so many different things that I
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  Speaker 1: have the average small person, small business person say to me,
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  Speaker 1: I know I'm breaking the law somewhere, but I just
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  Speaker 1: don't know where. So when you bring more reforms forward,
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  Speaker 1: those people just throw their arms up and go, well,
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  Speaker 1: hang on, it's already too difficult. Why are you making
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  Speaker 1: it harder again. So what the challenge is for this
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  Speaker 1: is to actually bring about change but make it simpler
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  Speaker 1: at the same time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is probably easier said than done. But in
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  Speaker 2: saying that, as you touched on, you know, we did
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  Speaker 2: see quite the debarkle. I guess it was a couple
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  Speaker 2: of years back where there was about two hundred unit
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  Speaker 2: owners here in the territory who were severely impacted due
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  Speaker 2: to structural engineering within their buildings. It wasn't up to
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  Speaker 2: the standard that I guess it needs to be. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I suppose that realistically these changes need to
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  Speaker 2: come into place so that something like that doesn't happen again.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Our industry is a four and a half billion
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  Speaker 1: dollar industry every single year. That's a lot of concrete
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  Speaker 1: and steel and glass and roofing on and everything else.
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  Speaker 1: But the thing is, it's also an industry that provides
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  Speaker 1: shelter for the entire community. So there's an extra responsibility
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  Speaker 1: on our industry to make sure that we build products
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  Speaker 1: that keep people safe and that preserve people's investments. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm completely comfortable that ninety nine point five per cent
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  Speaker 1: of what our industry does is fantastic, and every time
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  Speaker 1: we have a cyclone we get to prove that once again.
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  Speaker 1: But there is that point five percent, and I think,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that's life, isn't it. We just need to
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  Speaker 1: make sure we close off on those problems.
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  Speaker 2: It may be I don't know whether this is you know,
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  Speaker 2: whether this is a silly question, but you know, will
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  Speaker 2: some of these changes ultimately impact you know, the consumer
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  Speaker 2: at the other end, when it comes to how much
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  Speaker 2: something costs.
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  Speaker 1: To build, that's a good question as well, if it's
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  Speaker 1: done well. I think if these reforms are done well,
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  Speaker 1: the average person isn't going to notice the change. You know,
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  Speaker 1: if we make it more complex if we get it wrong,
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  Speaker 1: then you know, costs will rise. So that's the challenge
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  Speaker 1: I think for the industry and for government as well,
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  Speaker 1: is that we need to be able to make progress,
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  Speaker 1: but do it in a way that you know, doesn't
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  Speaker 1: add to the burden for everybody. And that's such a challenge.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see how we go. But I know that evil
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  Speaker 1: lawlor is mean Through is of the same mind as well.
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  Speaker 2: And Dave, I know you said that there's going to
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  Speaker 2: be some personal or there's going to be some professional
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  Speaker 2: development as part of these changes. Does that mean that
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  Speaker 2: some you know, some in the construction sector are going
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  Speaker 2: to sort of have to jump through more hoops, do
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  Speaker 2: more training. What does that mean exactly?
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  Speaker 1: Well, they're definitely going to have to keep up, and
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  Speaker 1: it's not easy to do that in the building and
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  Speaker 1: construction industry. I probably have never said this on air before,
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  Speaker 1: but the Building Actor is diabolical. Anyone who reads it
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  Speaker 1: will know that it's hugely complex, and the National Construction
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  Speaker 1: Code it's complex too. So while they're the law as
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  Speaker 1: they are right now, we do need people to invest
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  Speaker 1: in getting to understand them far better than they do
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  Speaker 1: right now. So yeah, they'll sit in classrooms or you know,
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  Speaker 1: at toolbox talks on site and we'll make sure that
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  Speaker 1: people do that.
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  Speaker 2: Continuing development, Dave, I know that you know plenty of
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  Speaker 2: people who work in building, in construction and lots of
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  Speaker 2: subbeasily listen to the show. If they're listening to this
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  Speaker 2: this morning and they're concerned or they're sort of wondering
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  Speaker 2: how it's going to impact them, is there somewhere where
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  Speaker 2: they can go to get a bit more information if
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  Speaker 2: they don't already have that.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, So the Department's put our three discussion papers out
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  Speaker 1: in a fact sheet and people can find all that
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  Speaker 1: information at bas dot policy at nt dot gov dot au,
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  Speaker 1: so they can go to that download the discussion papers.
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  Speaker 1: We'll be running some sessions in here as well for
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  Speaker 1: people so that they understand what's proposed. We don't just
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  Speaker 1: sit in the office and knock together our response. We
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  Speaker 1: need our members to tell us what to say, so
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  Speaker 1: there'll be a process, but the starting points to go online.
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  Speaker 2: Well. Dave Malone, head of the Master Builders here in
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory, always appreciate your time. Thanks for chatting
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  Speaker 2: with us.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Katie, thank you