Residential Focus: In from the cold – the draft building reforms resurface

In our previous article, Missing in action – what has become of the draft building reforms?, we speculated as to what had become of the draft building reforms.

Readers will recall that in 2022, a suite of draft reforming legislation was published for public consultation, comprising the:

• Building Bill 2022
• Building Compliance and Enforcement Bill 2022
• Building Legislation Amendment Bill 2022.Public consultation closed in November 2022. Only the Building Legislation Amendment Bill emerged from that process in an altered (reduced) state and became the Building Legislation Amendment Act 2023, which commenced on 11 December 2023.

According to a number of industry groups, including Engineers Australia and the Australian Institute of Architects, the draft building reforms have resurfaced for industry consultation, now due in October.