This week another building was singled out,at Canterbury,where inspectors from the Public Works Advisory were called in to investigate serious structural flaws in a 10-storey tower.
More cases will emerge. That is because 85 per cent of buildings with serious defects are not reported to Fair Trading. So problems will be revealed over time. Fair Trading has undergone a transformation and now has specialist teams who – armed with strong new powers – can help the owners of these buildings if and when defects come to light.
We are still discovering similarly poor-quality buildings as part of an audit process that started last October. More than 100 audits have been conducted so far and a similar number are expected in the coming year. We are targeting about 20 per cent of all new developments. New risk-assessment tools allow us to identify high-risk developments.
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These tools pull together more than 1 billion data points combining regulatory data from Fair Trading,SafeWork,NSW Fire and Rescue and the Department of Planning,Industry and Environment. The information is used to identify projects for pre-occupation certificate audits. Typically,10 projects are selected each month,seven being the most risky and three random choices. It enables the regulator to focus on the risky,while a new trust rating tool – provided by the private sector – will allow consumers,financiers and insurers to engage with the most trustworthy developers and builders. These tools provide both incentive and reward for the trusted players. It will make viability for risky players evermore difficult.
The developers and builders responsible for these buildings protest that rectification,prohibition and stop-work orders “trash” their reputation. I put it back to them that they are the ones who trashed their reputation. This will continue.
We are often confronted with examples of building failure and tragedy from overseas. London’s Grenfell fire and the Miami towers collapse are quoted to grab an easy headline. NSW apartment owners should be comforted that our buildings are of much more highly regulated standards. There has been no loss of life in Australia caused by cladding fires because our systems provide for safe evacuation. We also have world-class emergency services.