History of the National Construction Code

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Building and plumbing have historically been regulated through separate legislative and administrative arrangements. Building is regulated by State and Territory governments, with the Building Code of Australia (BCA) as the primary code referenced in all State and Territory building Acts or regulations.

State and Territory governments also regulate plumbing. However, unlike building, plumbing regulators had not agreed (through an IGA) to the adoption of a national code.

While regulated separately, building, and plumbing regulation are inherently linked, with both setting requirements for on-site construction of buildings. These regulations should therefore require consistent outcomes and work towards achieving consistent objectives.

In order to achieve this, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) asked the Business Regulation and Competition Working Group (BRCWG) to investigate the merits of a National Construction Code (NCC) and to report back to COAG by July 2008. On 3 July 2008, COAG agreed to the development of an NCC to cover building, plumbing, electrical and telecommunications standards, the first stage of which would be to consolidate codes for building and plumbing.

The Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) on the proposal for the development of an NCC identified the following potential benefits:

• Improved consistency between building and plumbing regulations;
• Improved framework for regulation of plumbing on a national basis;
• Improved regulatory framework to respond to future policy challenges;
• Improved regulatory conditions for innovation at the national level; and
• Opportunity for administrative reform.

The ABCB was tasked by COAG with producing the NCC. The first stage, the consolidation of building and plumbing, was completed with the release of NCC 2011 for adoption by States and Territories from 1 May 2011. The NCC comprises the Building Code of Australia (BCA), Volume One and Two; and the Plumbing Code of Australia (PCA), as Volume Three.