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“NSW has already committed to introducing these transition arrangements, and we are concerned that ACT will not honour the national agreement,” said Greg Weller, HIA Executive Director ACT/Sthn NSW.
“The agreed transition allows a period of six months after the ban takes place on 1 July 2024 for these pre-existing contracts to be fulfilled which is a sensible and pragmatic approach.
“With a large amount of kitchen, bathroom and stone fabrication taking place across the border, it would be unreasonable for the industry and public in the ACT region if we had a different compliance regime from NSW for these six months.
“Builders, kitchen suppliers and stonemasons’ risk being in a position where they can meet the pre-existing contract with one customer, but not another, though they may only be a few kilometres apart.
“There is a significant volume of new homes and apartments currently under construction and scheduled to be built over the next 1-2 years, and engineered stone has been the predominant product specified for use in kitchen and bathrooms.
“Given the lead time in residential building – and in particular with more complex buildings including high density living - suppliers will likely be holding stock for the affected projects.
“However, there has been no announcement about the transition by the Minister and this leaves open the question of whether there will be one. Importantly, there is also no message from the government to consumers who will need to vary their building contracts, probably at greater expense, to have a different product installed in their new or renovated home.
“The issue of working with engineered stone is one that HIA takes extremely seriously and we are supportive of the need to minimise the potential exposure of workers to harmful levels of respirable crystalline silica (RCS).
“With the ACT also having arguably the strongest RCS controls in the country, we believe the Territory is well-placed to manage an orderly and safe phase out of engineered stone,” concluded Mr Weller.
The HIA has been advised that due to an increase of plumbing audit inspection failures, from the 1st of September, the Office of the Technical Regulator (OTR) will be further policing non-compliance in the installation of sanitary plumbing and drainage pipework, namely the bedding of sanitary drainage pipes.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has welcomed the establishment of the Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry into social housing, describing it as an important opportunity to identify the reforms needed to deliver more housing of all forms at scale and address the bottlenecks holding back housing supply broadly.
“Sales of new homes declined for a third consecutive month in July, falling by 3.7 per cent as higher interest rates and policy uncertainty continued to weigh on consumer confidence,” stated HIA Senior Economist, Tom Devitt.
HIA is proudly supporting National Skills Week this year by highlighting the construction industry’s many and diverse career opportunities.