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CONSTRUCTION OCCUPATIONS (LICENSING) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2004 (NO 1) (NO 44 OF 2004)
2004
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL
TERRITORY
CONSTRUCTION
OCCUPATIONS (LICENSING) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2004 (No
1)
Subordinate Law
SL2004-44
EXPLANATORY
STATEMENT
Circulated by authority of
Mr Simon Corbell
MLA
Minister for Planning
CONSTRUCTION OCCUPATIONS (LICENSING) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS
2004 (No 1)
These are new regulations under the Construction Occupations
(Licensing) Regulations 2004.
The Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004
(“COLA”) and the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Regulations
2004 (“COLR”) both commenced on
1 September 2004.
Those laws generally provide for a new
licensing regime for various construction occupations. Prior to 1 September
2004, those occupations were regulated under various different Acts.
An
intention in enacting COLA was to provide a seamless transition, for both
licensees and law administrators, from the former licensing Acts’
disparate licensing regimes into a single uniform licensing regime under COLA.
To do so COLA contains various provisions aimed at making simple transitions for
each kind of occupational licence from former law into COLA.
COLA, s 152
(Transitional regulations), provides to the effect that COLR
may—
prescribe savings or transitional matters necessary or
convenient to be prescribed because of the enactment of the Construction
Occupations Legislation Amendment Act 2004 or COLA; and
modify the
operation of COLA to make provision with respect to any matter that is not, or
not adequately, dealt with in COLA or the Construction Occupations
Legislation Amendment Act 2004.
The new regulations are necessary to
make minor modifications to COLA and COLR to help provide better correlation
between former licensing regimes and that of COLA, and to reduce the impact of
unintended or unforeseen ramifications of COLA’s commencement, and to
clarify intent.
Clause 1 provides that the name of the new regulations is the
Construction Occupations (Licensing) Amendment Regulations 2004 (No
1).
Clause 2 prescribes that the new regulations commence on
the day after the day that the regulations are notified.
Clause 3
provides that the new regulations amend the Construction Occupations
(Licensing) Regulations 2004 (“COLR”).
Clause 4
omits subregulation 28 (2) and substitutes a new subregulation in its place.
That is necessary to remove doubt that licensees in the occupation class of
general building surveyor employee or principle building surveyor employee may
only provide construction services in that class as an employee of an employer
who is licensed as general building surveyor or principle building
surveyor.
Clause 5 inserts 4 new regulations into
COLR—
regulation 52 (Modification of Act, pt 7, s 83—Act, s
152);
regulation 53 (Modification of Act, pt 13, s137 (2)—Act, s
152);
regulation 54 (Modification of Act, pt 13—Act, s 152);
and
regulation 55 (Modification of Act, dictionary, definition of AS
3500—Act, s 152).
New regulation 52 (Modification of Act, pt 7, s
83—Act, s 152), modifies the s 83, (Advertising without details),
provisions of the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004
(“COLA”), by inserting 3 new additional subsections. An intended
effect is to disapply the relevant advertising requirements to advertisements
prepared or published before 1 September 2004. That is necessary as some
sectors of the radio advertising and newspaper advertising industry have
expressed difficultly in handling the amount of change needed to their relevant
client’s advertisements to bring the noncompliant advertisements into s 83
compliance. Section 83 essentially requires relevant advertisements to state
the relevant person’s name as stated on the COLA licence, the licence
number, and any relevant ACN. New regulation 51 provides to the effect that the
above-mentioned disapplication is only effective for 6 months. That is
necessary to eventually ensure advertising after that periods is fully compliant
with COLA, s 83. The 6 month period is necessary to allow time to bring the
noncompliant advertisement into compliance. Some advertisements had been
previously booked to be published for periods of up to 12 months without
alteration, prior to COLA commencement.
New regulation 53 (Modification
of Act, pt 13, s137 (2)—Act, s 152), modifies COLA, s 137 (2) by omitting
subregulation 137 (2) and substituting a new subsection. That is necessary as a
consequence of the amendments brought about by clause 9.
New regulation
54 (Modification of Act, pt 13—Act, s 152), modifies COLA by inserting 2
new sections—
s 151, (Supervision by nominees—Act, s 28 (3)
(b)); and
s 151A (Water and Sewerage Act, s 49 (5)).
COLA, new s
151, (Supervision by nominees—Act, s 28 (3) (b)), indicates how a certain
reference set out in s 151 can be taken as a slightly different reference, as
setout in the section also. That is necessary to avoid the untended consequence
of not permitting multiple COLA nominees of a corporation or partnership to all
be nominees responsible for all work done the relevant corporation or nominee.
Without the application of new s 151, COLA, s 28 implied that where a
corporation or partnership had more than 1 nominee, then each nominee must be
responsible for work that is different to the work of the other nominees. The
intention was however, that all nominees of a single corporation or partnership
could be responsible for all of the work of that corporation or partnership.
The application of new s 151 would allow nominees to temporarily take leave from
their responsibilities as nominee for purposes such as holidays and illness,
whilst other nominee(s) substituted for that nominee, without having to formally
reassign nominee responsibilities.
COLA, new s 151A (Water and Sewerage
Act, s 49 (5)), provides clarification that a reference in the Water and
Sewerage Act 2000, s 49 (5) to an Australian Standard includes a reference to an
Australian and New Zealand standard. That is necessary to account for the fact
that the relevant standard is no longer only Australian Standard but has been
superceded by a joint Australian and New Zealand Standard.
New regulation
55 (Modification of Act, dictionary, definition of AS 3500—Act,
s 152), modifies the COLA dictionary to define the term Australian
Standard 3500. That is necessary to account for the fact that the
relevant standard is no longer an Australian Standard but has been superceded by
a joint Australian and New Zealand Standard, although subparts of it remain
published as only an Australian Standard.
Clause 6 substitutes
Schedule 1, part 1.1, items 2 and 3. The substitution in effect makes minor
changes to the descriptions of the kinds of work that builder’s licenses
class B and C authorise their holder to carry out. That is necessary to enhance
equivalence with the corresponding former authorities of those licenses under
the Building Act 1972 (repealed). It also clarifies that a holder of a
builders licence class C is authorised to build certain structures such as
fences and retaining walls etc associated with the residences the licensee is
authorised to build. Such structures are referred to as class 10b structures,
but the regulation excludes the licence from authorising certain structures that
relate to swimming pools, as work in relation to swimming pools is treated by
the regulations as specialist building work due to the safety risks associated
with drowning in pools.
Clause 7 inserts a new paragraph (e) into
Schedule 1, part 1.4, item 9, which relates to a certain kind of work authorised
by a relevant electrical permit. That is necessary to enhance equivalence with
the corresponding former authority of the equivalent permit under the
Electricity Safety Act 1971.
Clauses 8 and 9
substitute Schedule 1, part 1.6, item 2, and insert new items 4 and 5, which
together deal with the kinds of work authorised by certain water supply plumbers
and fire sprinkler fitters licences. That is necessary for convenience in
administering the respective licences. As drafted, item 2 encompasses water
supply plumbing work, which in some circumstances prohibits certain fire
sprinkler fitting work, but in other circumstances prohibits all water supply
plumbing work other than fire sprinkler fitting work. The effect of clause 8 is
to split the water supply plumber licence into 3 logical and distinct new
provisions—
water supply plumber;
fire sprinkler fitter;
and
journeypersons fire sprinkler fitter.
The changes brought
about by clause 8 are intended to only impact on how the provisions are
administered and to seamlessly continue former licensing matters from the
licensee’s perspective.
Clause 10 clarifies the definition
of the term fire sprinkler work in the regulations’
Dictionary.
Nil