If you check Hansard for the debates on the D&BP Bill, you’ll find the bill was praised from all sides (Lib, Lab, Greens and others) because it would solve problems that new buildings were giving. No-one mentioned older buildings, not even MPs whose electorates contain many Class 2 buildings dating from the 1940s. So there’s no-one likely to admit the Act has problems.
Yet a building like MissPopEye’s clearly shouldn’t have the same issues as the new ones. Its owners have been dealing with waterproofing problems for years and know what to do so that the problems don’t recur three weeks later. And blind freddy should be able to see that $9000 certifications won’t fit in the budgets that modest older buildings have.
What we need is a few parliamentarians who’ve served on strata committees. Alas, that won’t happen anytime soon.