NCC policy and freeze status

Question

Senator BRAGG: So the Treasurer gave a press conference after that where he talked about the National Construction Code. I know it's a detailed issue, but he did refer to it in his speech after his roundtable in the cabinet room. In that, on 21 August last year, he said that he had asked Clare O'Neil, the housing minister, to go away and do some stuff on the NCC. Then, two days later, it was announced that the government would be freezing the NCC for four years. Last night at Senate estimates Minister Ayres was in Minister Gallagher's chair and said very clearly that the four-year freeze was not necessarily government policy anymore, that if there were opportunities to change the NCC then they would be considered by the government and the four-year freeze was not necessarily the government's policy. I don't really have a strong view about what the policy is right now. I just want to know what the government's policy is. It seems to me that the proposal was that you were going to make some changes to the NCC this year and then you were going to have a four-year freeze. But, as of last night, it appears there may not be a four-year freeze at all. My question is: what is happening with the NCC? Ms Wilkinson: My understanding is that we have paused further updates to the National Construction Code and that a review is being undertaken to modernise that code. I'll have to take on notice the detail of your question. I'm not sure whether the minister-

Answer

See attached response.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000436 NCC policy and freeze status.pdf (opens in a new tab)