It all happened with zero fanfare and little fuss but the NSW department of Fair Trading lost another commissioner this month.
In the same week that Building Commissioner David Chandler announced he was cutting short his contract extension, Property Services Commissioner John Minns also flew the Fair Trading coop.
His departure comes as a result of the proposed transformation of his role from being an adjunct of Fair Trading to an independent statutory position answerable to Parliament. Mr Minns has apparently told friends and colleagues he was not interested in setting up a bureaucracy.
But he hasn’t been sitting on his hands. Apparently he had outlined far-reaching proposals for a major shake-up of real estate and strata management industries that he was going to announce at an event hosted by Macquarie Bank next week.
The proposal of the statutory role came after a “listening tour” of the state by Mr Minns and now-departed Minister for Fair Trading Eleni Petinos.
It is believed that the message from the property industry was that it wanted a commissioner who was independent of Fair Trading, a government department that industry members have said in the past that they simply don’t trust.
However, the statutory role will require legislation in Parliament so it is unlikely to see the light of day before the next election, leading to whispers that it was merely a political stunt to head off Labor Party criticisms of lack of action.
Listening Tour
“We’ve considered the feedback collected during the Property Services Listening Tour,” Ms Petinos said in a press release in July.
“As a result, we will legislate to provide the Property Services Commissioner more responsibility for the regulation of the sector, including managing complaints, direct communication and engagement with consumer groups and industry, and investigating breaches of relevant legislation.”
Small Business Commissioner Chris Lamont is believed to have been appointed interim Property Services Commissioner while the NSW Parliament considers legislation, confirming Ms Petinos’ preference for that area of her portfolio.
Why Mr Minns couldn’t have continued in that role temporarily is a matter for much speculation although he wasn’t or didn’t get the chance to be the colossus bestriding the industry that David Chandler had become in property development.
So what went wrong? Was it a case that he was given a job but then not allowed to do it? Was there a further deterioration in the culture of Fair Trading that had already been criticised by industry professionals?
Just days after Mr Minns departed Ms Petinos was shown the door by Premier Perrottet amid accusations of bullying (which she strongly denied) and concerns over the rapid turnover of staff in her department and constituency office.
Engagement
At the time of Mr Minns appointment as the state’s first Property Services Commissioner in November last year the State Government said it would “herald a new era of trust and engagement between the real estate industry, its regulator and consumers in NSW.”
The newly anointed commissioner would “reflect the successful model taken by Building Commissioner David Chandler to reform the building and construction sector,” said a press release from the department of Better Regulation and Innovation.
But John Minns’ first challenge was to heal a rift in the Property Services Expert Panel, set up to advise him, after the Real Estate Institute of NSW walked away from the project before it had even met for the first time.
In a blistering attack on the concept of the panel in June last year when it was first announced, Real Estate Institute of NSW chief executive Tim McKibbin said it was a “ruse” offering little consumer protection, involving “pointless engagement” and would have “no capacity to deliver meaningful change” as long as the Department of Fair Trading remained the regulator.
However, he later came on board, partly encouraged by Mr Minns appointment. “We welcome the appointment of Mr Minns and we believe he has the expertise to be able to do the job, and do it well, and we’ll provide him with enthusiastic support,” Mr McKibbin told Flat Chat.
“Our reservations however are to do with the culture of FT which is to not engage with industry cooperatively and constructively. We continue to hold that concern.”
Re-shuffle
Kevin Anderson, then Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation (the Fair Trading Mothership), said the new commissioner would “sit independently of Fair Trading”, while reporting directly to him.
Mr Anderson was shortly thereafter replaced in the ministry by Eleni Petinos in the cabinet re-shuffle that followed the resignation of Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her replacement by Dominic Perrottet.
And that, say observers, is when things started to go seriously awry including, as discussed in this week’s podcast, an embarrassing exchange with a Fair Trading media operative who didn’t recognise the name John Minns and instead offered the phone number of Chris Minns, leader of the Opposition.
So it seems Tim McKibbin had it right all along about the culture of Fair Trading and its failure to engage with the industry, consumers and now, it seems, even its own senior staff members.
And, in stark contrast to his comments last year, Mr McKibbin commended the NSW Government on the decision to make Property Services Commissioner a statutory role.
“We have been calling for an Independent Statutory Property Services Commissioner to support the industry and consumers as we believe an independent Commissioner will deliver substantial benefits for both the industry and consumers,” Mr McKibbin said.
Chris Duggan, President of the Strata Community Association of Australia (the strata managers’ professional organisation) and chair of the Property Services Expert Panel also welcomed the announcement.
“It is important for our industry, clients and customers to have an independent voice to resolve complaints and progress regulatory reform. This evolution of the Commissioner’s role is a sign of the commitment to ensure that consumers in the property sector are at the center of reform and compliance,” Mr Duggan said.
All that remains is to see if the actual “consumers” – especially strata property owners and tenants – are even on the new property services commissioner’s radar if and when he or she is appointed.
Collective holding of breath is not recommended.
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Tagged: Chandler, Fair Trading, Minns, Petinos, Property, quit, sacked, services
It all happened with zero fanfare and little fuss but the NSW department of Fair Trading lost another commissioner this month. In the same week that B
[See the full post at: Confusion as another FT commissioner quits]
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