The member associations of the Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF) will meet with a number of Federal Ministers and Shadow Ministers in Canberra next week, to speak directly about the industry’s biggest issues.
First and foremost, ACIF members would like a commitment by state and federal governments to implement the recommendations of the Shergold-Weir Report within three years of its release. That is, by May 2021.
For context, Professor Peter Shergold and Ms Bronwyn Weir’s independent report provides the Building Ministers’ Forum (BMF), who oversee policy and regulatory issues affecting Australia’s building and construction industries, with a comprehensive package of recommendations, designed to establish a national best practise model for compliance and implementation.
The Shergold-Weir Report contains 24 recommendations to address the key weaknesses of the existing system, focusing on:
- More consistent and higher levels of training and registration for building practitioners.
- Clarification and strengthening of the roles and responsibilities of regulators.
- Improving information and documents relating to construction projects and finished buildings.
- Strengthening inspection regimes.
- Further improvement in the safety of building products.
The ACIF will also be advocating for more support for the Building Information Modelling (BIM) Strategy of Australasian BIM Advisory Board.
The Advisory Board is a team of industry leaders, influencers and experts who are willing to share their valuable knowledge, skills and experience.
They aim to amend ‘the fundamental gap’ in the coordination of harmonised BIM standards, protocols, systems and tools, guidance and training across all areas of construction activity.
Lastly, the ACIF members state that more needs to be done to implement an effective regime to minimise the use of non-conforming building products.
The ACIF Forecasts show that the Australian construction industry employs over 1.2 million Australians, and in 2017-18 had a turnover of $247 billion. Therefore, the construction industry is one of the main drivers of the Australian economy and its productivity and success is critical to the growth and success of the Australian economy.
Given the importance of construction to the Australian economy and its people, the organisation advocates that the Federal Government and all state and territory Governments have dedicated construction ministers, which would result in better outcomes for the industry and enhance a critical sector of the Australian economy.