Resourcing the NSW Building Commissioner

Back in February a flurry of media releases announced that the Building Commissioner would have a staff of 75. It was announced that NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler “is looking for architects, engineers, site managers, certifiers and other industry experts to help weed out bad practice in the apartment construction industry.” This is a picture taken after the Premier Gladys  Berejiklian had announced that unlike her own personal behaviour, she believed in builders and developers applying the rules assiduously. Clearly the Building Commissioner thought that hilarious and even the current Premier is in on the joke.

Further tight regulations were promised but it’s hard to find out what’s happened about the recruitment of the 60 - and anything else about the intended 75 members of staff.

If you go to the Building Commissioner’s site you can watch podcasts but the closest thing you can find to an employee is Reg, who has his own blog “What would Reg say”.

Reg is the Building Commissioner’s “Mascot and Oracle”.  https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/projects-and-initiatives/building-commissioner/what-would-reg-say .

Reg has quite a lot to say but he doesn’t say the most important lesson that every investigation into building standards has established - namely that if you want a reliable job done by someone not paid for by the developer, you go to a Council. Even though he says “Don’t associate with risky players. Consider the company you keep. We’ll be using powerful matching technologies”, as advice to certifiers, at some stage the Building Commissioner needs to come to grips with the fact that the only certifiers without a conflict of interest are those employed by councils.

And if you happen to know anyone who’s taken a job with the Building Commissioner, please let us know.

Speaking of building, the proposed Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2020 is now out for consultation.

Here is a communications package for those of you who are interested.