The ACT has taken another step closer to having a registration scheme for professional engineers, with laws passing the Legislative Assembly more than a decade after the territory government accepted the scheme was needed.
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Sustainable Building and Construction Minister Rebecca Vassarotti will now have the power to implement a registration scheme for engineers, a key recommendation of a decade-old report.
The scheme gives the government regulatory powers to suspend or cancel an engineers' registration.
"Immediate suspension or cancellation powers are limited to when the registrar is satisfied that a ground for disciplinary action exists, and it is in the public interest to immediately suspend or cancel the professional engineer's registration. Notice must be provided in writing unless the registrar believes there is an immediate risk to the safety of any person," an explanatory statement on the laws tabled in the Assembly said.
Sustainable Building and Construction Minister Rebecca Vassarotti introduced the legislation to the Legislative Assembly in December, following an 18-month consultation period.
The government and the opposition supported the bill when it was voted on in the Assembly on Thursday afternoon.
"It is vital that everyone involved in significant construction works are suitably qualified and that the community has confidence that such large works meet safety and building quality standards," Ms Vassarotti said at the time the bill was introduced.
"Initially, the scheme will only apply to five areas of engineering but may later be expanded. The areas proposed in the current scheme are civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and fire safety engineering."
The scheme will provide engineers registered in other states with automatic mutual recognition in the ACT, a scheme which a audit report released earlier this month said raised integrity risks to the registration of builders in the territory.
The agency tasked with licensing builders in the ACT should engage with other states and territories to ensure tradespeople are not getting licences with fewer prerequisites in other jurisdictions to automatically receive licences without meeting the territory's own requirements, the Auditor-General's report said.
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Then-ACT workplace safety minister Simon Corbell agreed in December 2012 to introduce a register of engineers, a recommendation from an independent inquiry into construction safety.
The government at the time set a deadline of 2014 to introduce the scheme.
The government faced repeated calls from industry bodies to introduce the scheme in the years since, most recently in 2020 after NSW introduced its own regime.
The 2012 inquiry into construction industry safety found engineering failures had contributed to numerous serious accidents across construction sites in the ACT over recent years.
Incidents included the 2010 Barton Highway bridge collapse, the 2008 Belconnen Cameron Offices wall collapse and the 2008 Marcus Clarke Street slab collapse and the inquiry report said "each of which could easily have led to a number of fatalities".
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
