What the Shergold Weir report?

In mid-2017 the Building Ministers’ Forum (BMF) asked Professor Peter Shergold and Ms. Bronwyn Weir to assess the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement systems for the building and construction industry in Australia.

The final report ‘Building Confidence’ was delivered to the BMF in 2018.

Shergold and Weir are clear that there is insufficient supervision, auditing and expertise in the industry. Too many practitioners willing to take short cuts to save money and time.

They also note that there are many conflicts of interest in the way compliance is achieved through private certifiers employed by the client or builder and an unwillingness for certifiers or the approving authorities to enforce standards during construction.

A number of recommendations address those conflicts by better documentation, registration of building practitioners, auditing of those practitioners with inspections and checking during and after construction.

There have been many reports over many years calling for better quality documentation by design professionals.

Shergold and Weir wrote:

“The adequacy of documentation prepared and approved as part of the building approvals process is often poor. The tendency for inadequate documentation to be prepared and accepted by building surveyors at the building approvals stage has increased, in part because of owners and developers endeavoring to minimise costs on documentation. This issue needs to be addressed as a matter of priority."

Inadequate documentation can also result in hidden costs or allow builders to cut costs without owners being aware of it.

The integrity of documentation for future use is also compromised when the approval documents do not reflect the as-built building, or when they contain insufficient detail to properly inform building risk and maintenance requirements.”

The report notes that the process for approving changes during construction is flawed, and that as-built documentation is either non-existent or of poor quality.

It recommends that comprehensive digital manuals be required by law to allow access to information in the future by the owners and maintainers of buildings, as shown on page 35 of the report.