Building Inquiry Recommends Engineer Registration Scheme

The Public Accountability Committee yesterday released its first report into the regulation of building standards, building quality and building disputes following the highly publicised defect issues in Mascot and Opal towers.

The report makes 19 recommendations to improve the construction industry – one of which being a registration scheme for engineers in NSW (page 103).

The report has been released on the same day the government's Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019 was read for a second time in Parliament. The government's Bill goes some way to assist with the registration of engineers by requiring those working on buildings to be registered however it leaves significant gaps with engineers working on bridges, roads and water systems with no legal requirement for formal registration.

The report suggests the Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019 and the Professional Engineers Registration Bill 2019, introduced into Parliament by Yasmin Catley MP last month, should be passed together to ensure the loopholes in the regulation of engineers are addressed effectively.

The LGEA welcomes the recommendation of passing of both Bills together and, with the help of its members, has been campaigning for the government to do this for weeks through an online petition.

To assist with this campaign and the recommendations in the report, LGEA members are encouraged to sign the petition calling on the Premier to introduce a comprehensive engineer registration scheme to bring NSW engineering into line with neighboring states.