Mr GREG WARREN (Campbelltown) (11:59): My question is addressed to the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading. Will the Minister update the House on the immediate action taken by the New South Wales Government to strengthen the quality of building and construction in the State?
Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields—Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Minister for Building, and Minister for Corrections) (11:59): I thank the member for Campbelltown for asking that important question. As he and I know—as many members with electorates in south-west and north-west Sydney know—the development and construction industry is so important as we try to cater for housing supply for our communities. That is why the reform agenda that the Government has for the building industry is central to creating confidence, to attracting investment and to increasing quality of supply.
The Minns Government is moving quickly on implementing its election commitment to restore confidence to the New South Wales construction industry. The residential construction industry alone is undertaking about $36 billion worth of building stock in New South Wales, creating quality homes and communities and great jobs for people in the State. In fact, the industry accounts for about 8 per cent of our gross State product—about $50 billion—and employs over 400,000 people. That means good jobs for good people, which supports our economic growth. The Government's reform agenda will support industry to deliver compliant, safe and resilient buildings while adding to the housing supply stock. As all members know, supply is critical to housing and rental affordability in the current industry. All members know how important that aspect actually is.
But we must never sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. We must ensure that purchasers are confident in the quality of their housing. That will drive investment in the sector. The equation is quite simple: Our building reforms will increase confidence, quantity and quality, investment and supply and will reduce prices for people in our community as they seek to rent a house or buy their first home. We want to create incentives for financiers and insurers to enter the market, creating jobs and the homes that people need for the long term. To support the Government's work to unlock more housing supply, we want to establish a fit‑for‑purpose building regulator to be the cop on the beat.
The work of the Building Commissioner and the building regulator over the past few years has led to world‑leading transformation of the New South Wales apartment sector. The Government, of course, provided bipartisan support for that reform agenda, which is starting to restore confidence to the construction sector. It is about calling out bad players and giving consumers and industry the tools that they need to make informed decisions about who to buy from and what businesses to deal with. While those measures have been effective, we can certainly always improve. We need a concerted effort to expand on the gains that have been made in the apartment sector to transform the entire building sector. [Extension of time]
That is why the Government will establish a building commission to oversee the regulation, licensing and oversight of the entire construction industry. The commission will be tasked with building new capacity and capabilities to tackle the issues we are now seeing in low‑rise residential building work. The Government will ensure that the commission is properly equipped with the expertise, capacity and powers to respond to defective and untrustworthy design and building work across the sector. The Government will establish the building commission by the end of the year, with the commission fully stood up in about 2024 as it recruits the right and necessary team and skills to drive the Government's work to restore confidence to the sector.
To support the building commission, the Government will also create a plain English building Act to consolidate existing building legislation, reduce red tape and empower consumers and building owners to make informed decisions. We will modernise the New South Wales building laws to ensure that we are not only able to effectively regulate the existing construction sector but also prepared for the industry of the future. That includes modern methods of construction, trends in financing and responding to the increasing complexity of buildings. The Government will release draft legislation to the industry and the community this year, and will look to introduce legislation to the Parliament in the first half of 2024. We will ensure that we have a modern, customer‑centric regulator working with a consistent and fit‑for‑purpose regulatory framework. We will transform the building sector and give buyers the confidence they need to make one of the biggest purchases in their life: buying a house for themselves and for their family.
