Today in the Parliament of New South Wales I spoke in favour of the Design and Practitioners Bill 2019.I wanted to emphasise the growth predicted in our local area, celebrate the planning that has taken place in Lake Macquarie, and the need for better regulations relating to new buildings.

Whilst the Bill does not go far enough to address my concerns, I nevertheless supported it because it is better than the current lack of legislation and regulations.

This is what I said:



Development continues to boom in the City of Lake Macquarie (in my electorate of Charlestown) despite a national downward trend, with a record $1.24 billion worth of development approvals in the past financial year alone, and in my electorate we are purposefully planning for the future.

Lake Macquarie City Council (a City Council in which I was previously privileged to serve as Mayor) has a bold plan for the future. Entitled Imagine Lake Mac, the Citys plan seeks to establish strategic priorities for growth and development, beginning now, and working towards 2050 and beyond.

We know that how we respond to challenges and opportunities now, will sculpt our city, affecting generations to come. So planning is important if we want to ensure the long-term prosperity, sustainability and well-being of our local communities.

The population in my electorate of Charlestown is growing, and we expect it to continue to grow for the foreseeable future. New class 2 mutli-purpose and multi-unit buildings such as the Alto Apartments on Charlestown Road, and the High Point Complex also in Charlestown are being developed to meet the needs of our growing population. These class 2 developments (if they were commencing the planning process now) would be subject to the regulations that will be provisioned in the Bill that is before us today.

The City Council has identified three scenarios for the population growth in my electorate.

The first scenario is that the City will continue to grow in much the same way that it has done in recent years.By 2050 this will have led to an increase in population of 45,000 new residents, bringing the population of Lake Macquarie to 250,000 people.

The second scenario recognises that the Lower Hunter region is increasingly becoming a place of choice for people to live and work. Population growth in this scenario could increase to 355,000 residents by 2050, an increase of 120,000 new people.

The third scenario explores the City of Lake Macquaries relationship with our State Capital. In this scenario the pull factors of living in my beautiful electorate and being able to work from home with high speed digital infrastructure and improved travel connections; and the push factors of wanting to get out of Sydney, but remain close to it, combine to see the population in the City of Lake Macquarie growing to 388,000 people by 2050.

We dont know how fast the City will grow; but what we do know is that growth will not happen by chance.

Within my electorate of Charlestown the City Council has identified two significant areas for growth.

The North West Growth Area encompasses land between Speers Point, Edgeworth and Cardiff. Much of the development here will involve urban in-fill leading to the potential for significant new job creation and an increase in housing supply.

The North East Growth Area from Charlestown to Belmont has the potential to become a regional strategic economic centre.

The question that is in my mind as I reflect on the Bill that is before us, is, will this legislation help or hinder the development that is going on in communities like mine. Because our ability to continue to protect the natural environment which is so attractive to current and potential residents, our ability to provide jobs and transport links, and our ability to provide housing and infrastructure will all affect the rate of growth that we will experience.

I am proud that my City is rising to the challenge, and putting in place the plans to enable and facilitate this growth in the coming years.

The Lake Macquarie area is a wonderful place to live and work. It is no accident that so many thousands of people have chosen to spend their lives around our lake, and close to our beautiful beaches, parks and bushland. We have a vast natural environment which we need to protect, and of course the challenge is that it is this natural environment which is most endangered by the growing number of people who are attracted to live in close proximity to it. If we are to maintain and protect these spaces, then one of the new realities for the people that I serve, is that we will need to grow upwards: growing upwards like the class 2 developments Shearwater at Warners Bay, and the Foundry Apartments at Adamstown. Examples of new kinds of development projects in my local communities.

These are exciting times for the people of my electorate. But they come with significant challenges as well. There is the challenge of preserving our natural environment, as I have already noted. There is the challenge of sharing the benefits of the growth of the electorate with all those who call it their home, and not just a few. There is the challenge of keeping up with the infrastructure needs of a growing region. There is the challenge of ensuring that people are not left behind by the growth that is taking place around them. There is the challenge of truly building for the future.

It is this last challenge which has been upper-most in my mind as I have been reflecting on the Bill that is before us in this place today.

How do we truly build for the future?

Planning is important. Sustained growth does not happen by chance. But planning alone is not enough. Quality in delivery is vitally important too. We know that quality of workmanship is intrinsically linked to quality of life.The quality of the new developments (and I think particularly of the new high rise developments that are planned for, and that will be necessary in my electorate) will directly impact the longevity of our built environment and our waste foot print.

If we build badly we are not building for the future, we are building simply for the present. If we build badly we are not building in a way that compliments our natural environment, we are unwittingly building an increased waste foot print.

In order to provide the confidence that will underpin sustained growth in areas such as the one that I represent, we need quality buildings that people can be pleased to call home and in which people can thrive.

It is that kind of building for the future that we need in my electorate and across our State. The Bill that is before us today will go some way to regulate and therefore ensure that quality. It is better than nothing, but it is not enough.

In so far as the Bill that is before us introduces a new regulatory framework to hold design and building practitioners to account for their work, I welcome this legislation, and I am pleased to support it. In so far as the Bill does not address other key issues of accountability in the building sector, I ask for more.

The Bill seeks to place the risk that is part of any new building venture in the hands of the design and building practitioners, and not in the hands of the occupiers of new properties.I welcome this legal duty of care owed by building practitioners to often vulnerable new owners. But I question why the same duty of care is not required of developers within the Bill. Surely this is an omission which needs to be corrected.

The Bill seeks to insert much needed regulation into Class 2 buildings (that is to say buildings which are multi-storey and multi-unit). I welcome this. But I question why other building classifications are not also included, and I wonder whether those builders who wish to evade regulation will simply focus on an unregulated classification of building from now on. It will be important for the fine print of the supporting regulations to be robust. It will be important for the Government to ensure that the Office of Fair Trading is resourced appropriately to meet its new regulatory responsibilities.

What is clear is that the provisions of this Bill will only be as good as the enforcement that supports them. The regulations that are to follow, and the resourcing regime that will be needed are critically important.

Whilst there has been significant media interest in the failings of new buildings in Sydney, growth areas outside of our State Capital are not somehow immune to these failings as well. Last year in a Private Members Statement in this place I highlighted such failings in a multi-storey commercial and residential apartment building in my electorate. The Landmark Building, close to my electorate office, was built at a cost of $24 million. It received a New South Wales Builders Association Excellence in Construction Award.

But the new occupiers of the building soon had to grapple with a nightmare of defects as serious as: failing safety barriers on balconies, inadequate stormwater drainage, issues with water proofing of roofs and external walls, structural resistance of materials used in the construction of the building and inadequate provisions for fire safety and fire safety awareness.

The price tag for engineers reports and remedial work was estimated to be up to two million dollars. I have met with some members of the Strata Executive and they have these repairs under control and underway. However, vulnerable home owners deserve better. We all deserve better.

I recognise in this Bill an important contribution to the regulatory framework of our building sector, and important risk safeguards for those who are purchasing properties.

I welcome how it will affect for good future developments within my electorate of Charlestown. It is better than nothing, although it is not enough.

Nevertheless, today I support this legislation and its contribution in helping us to build for the future.