Construction regulation overhaul after Opal Tower strife

Opal Tower apartment owner Andrew Neverly yesterday. Picture: Hollie Adams

 EXCLUSIVE

SAM BUCKINGHAM-JONES

JOURNALIST

12:00AM JANUARY 16, 2019

NSW’s $25 billion construction industry faces a regulatory overhaul following a damning report that found “a number of construction and design issues” with ’s troubled Opal Tower.

The Australian can reveal that the NSW minister in charge of regulation, Matt Kean, has told the peak body representing the nation’s building surveyors he is planning to introduce a “broader suite of reforms” in coming weeks.

Mr Kean has also spoken to several other groups and key industry experts, and it is understood he plans to take the proposed reforms — which would regulate engineers, builders, architects and other building practitioners — to cabinet as early as this week.

The move by the Better Regulation Minister to introduce sweeping reforms came as three independent experts released an interim report that found failures in the way the Opal Tower was designed and built.

There were “significant rectification works” needed, Mark Hoffman from the University of NSW, said yesterday in a media conference alongside Planning Minister . “A number of design and construction issues have been identified,” said the report by Professor Hoffman, UNSW professor Stephen Foster and University of Newcastle professor John Carter.

GRAPHIC: Problems that fell through the cracks

More than 300 apartment owners and residents face further months of uncertainty despite suffering a “nightmare” experience for the past 22 days.

On Christmas Eve, hundreds of people were evacuated from the 36-storey, 392-apartment tower at Sydney’s Olympic Park after they heard loud bangs and saw large cracks appear. Since then, there have been five simultaneous investigations of the tower, including the one commissioned by the government: one from the builder, Icon Co; another from the structural engineering firm, WSP; one by third-party engineers, Rincovitch; and one by the body corporate’s firm, Cardno.

The chair of Opal Tower’s body corporate, Shady Eskander, spoke out for the first time yesterday to demand the building be fixed.

“We have suffered. I can say on behalf of all the owners, people were buying into dream and unfortunately this has become an Australian nightmare for us,” he said.

“There are 392 apartments — each one has their story. Some of these stories have not come out yet … The tree is not going to fall, but the branches are cracking.”

The quality and speed of construction has been on the national agenda in recent weeks, and early next month the nation’s building ministers will meet to discuss plans for nationwide reforms.

In February last year, construction lawyer Bronwyn Weir and former secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Peter Shergold released a report reviewing the nation’s building and construction industry.

Their report made 24 recommendations, including registration of all major building practitioners, powerful regulators and a public audit strategy for commercial buildings. The report was put before the national meeting of state ministers, known as the Building Ministers’ Forum. It is understood Mr Kean’s office has contacted Ms Weir and Mr Shergold about the reforms, and has spoken to the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors and has sought to meet Engineers officials.

Troy Olds, president of the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors, discussed the reforms in a phone call with a senior official from Mr Kean’s office last week.

“The NSW government intends to introduce a broader suite of reforms to the regulation of the building and construction industry in that state,” Mr Olds told AIBS’s members in a statement.

“We understand the minister and his staff are preparing a detailed document around the proposed reforms. While we have not been given full details as yet, we are assured the reforms will be in line with recommendations contained in the Shergold (and) Weir Report to the Building Ministers’ Forum (BMF), titled Building Confidence. We understand the reforms will include regulation of all practitioners in the industry and building surveyors and certifiers will not be singled out.”

Brent Jackson, the executive general manager of strategy and transformation at Engineers Australia, confirmed Mr Kean’s office had been in touch to discuss reforms. “The main topic is the Shergold and Weir report,” he said.

“We’ve been talking about this for many years. To date, we’ve got not a lot of response from both sides of politics in NSW … Our advice to Matt Kean and other organisations is to develop a timetable to implement all of the recommendations.”

The expert report on the Opal Tower released yesterday investigated levels three, four, nine, 10, 16 and 26, as well as basement level B3, over the past three weeks.

It found evidence of inadequate grouting, an incomplete metal bar, incorrectly manufactured precast panels and poorly designed connections between columns and panels.