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@Cosmo said:
What I don’t understand is that prior to labor privatizing certification … council officials did the job and there was no incentive to cut corners.
You would think … but even today we see that coucillors and council officials are poorly paid and therefore eminently corruptible. The mistake Labor made was to listen to their developer mates who assured them they’d operate with honesty and integrity. Then when the Coalition came in, the ratchet effect occurred where it was impossible to turn things back.
Also, bear in mind the explosion in high-rise building which very quickly outstripped the availability of qualified certifiers. And just to be clear, it’s not a certifier’s job to go around kicking conrete wall and checking window locks.
They sit in an office and check that Pete the Plumber has signed off on the work he’s done, then that Eric the Electrician has signed his docket, and Barry the Builder, and Chris the Concreter …
Many certifiers are told by their employers not to go near the building site in case they are held liable for a defect they missed. That’s why Engineers Australia say it’s the system that’s wrong, not the people working in it.