Archive for the 'Heise Education' Category

At the first PALS session for the year Rachel Heise presented a short lecture on legislation for Architects in Queensland. Link below.

Queensland Legislation Lecture

We have also included a brief explanation of Legislation, Building Legislation and Queensland Building Legislation for your reference, co-authored with Jack Williamson for the Australian Institute of Architects.

LEGISLATION

In the Australian context the term legislation is an Act passed by the Australian or State Parliaments or the Legislative Assemblies of the Territories and given Royal Assent by the Governor-General or a State Governor or a Territory Administrator. An Act of Parliament is a law made by Parliament as opposed to common law made by the courts. The powers of the Australian (Federal) Parliament are listed in the Australian Constitution. The major federal responsibilities are foreign policy, defence, immigration, customs, post and telecommunications, imports and exports, the media, airport and air safety, income and company taxes. The State and Territory governments are responsible for all matters not listed as Australian Government responsibilities in the Australian Constitution such as building and planning, education, transport, workplace and safety, community services, sport and recreation, consumer affairs, police, prisons, electricity and water.

Most Acts have attached to them Regulations which are subordinate legislation made by Government Departments and approved by the Governor-in-Council or equivalent approval system. Often the detail application of an Act can be found in the Regulations which are much easier to change and are updated more frequently. In some cases the Regulations will include nominated external documents. Once these external documents are referenced in the regulations then they too become legislated. In interpreting an Act one needs to be aware that most parliaments have passed an Acts Interpretation Act and most Acts have definitions for terms used in the Act.

BUILDING LEGISLATION

Building legislation is a State and Territory responsibility. In general building legislation can be viewed as involving various statutory legislation requirements for building works, alterations, and occupation of a building, together with planning, built environment, urban design and the inspection, testing and maintenance of nominated fire safety installations. Under this arrangement, building legislation is closely linked to planning, environment, building control services and fire safety legislation.

All States and Territories have specific building legislation which is generally called a Building Act in most jurisdictions, New South Wales being the exception with building obligations listed in various NSW building legislation. Depending on the State or Territory there can be separate legislation for the registration or accreditation or licencing of building professions (architects, engineers, builders and certifiers), planning and building fire safety and the requirements for building or development approval administration and appeal systems.

The relevant building legislation either directly or through Regulations requires compliance with the National Construction Code (NCC) which incorporates the Building Code of Australia (BCA) and these documents outline the building requirements for construction standard, amenity, energy efficiency plumbing and occupants’ safety and health. In turn the NCC requires compliance with certain nominated Australian Standards. In addition some States require compliance with a Housing Code. While in Queensland compliance is also required with the Mandatory Parts of the Queensland Development Code (QDC).

BUILDING LEGISLATION – QUEENSLAND

In Queensland building legislation centers around both the Building Act 1975 and the Sustainable Planning Act 2009.  Both of these acts are available online from;

www.legislation.qld.gov.au

Building Act

The Building Act  is primarily a process driven document whos purpose is to legislate other referenced documents and set up a framework for their enforcement. The act does the following;

• gives authority to certifiers,
• nominates who can submit plans for approval,
• refers to the National Construction Code (NCC),
• refers to the Queensland Development Code (QDC) and
• refers to its subordinate Building Fire Safety Regulation and
• Building Regulation.

The Building Act also sets up the hierarchy between these referenced documents with the QDC taking precedence of the NCC and Australian standards where conflict is found between these documents.

According to the Building Act a building approval is required for building works. The definition of building works is contained in the Building Regulation. Only designated persons may submit plans for building approval, these include; registered architects, licensed builders, licensed building designers and registered professional engineers. For building work in Queensland all designated persons must be registered/licensed in Queensland.

National Construction Code (NCC) – http://acumen.architecture.com.au/apps/notes/view/920

Queensland Development Code (QDC) – http://www.dlgp.qld.gov.au/building/queensland-development-code.html

The QDC contains the majority of Queensland specific building requirements. It has both mandatory and non-mandatory parts and covers all building classes. It is also the default for planning requirements where there is no city plan covering the location for the building work. The QDC covers associated works in addition the NCC such as residential building setbacks, building in noise corridors, floating buildings, pool fencing and workplace requirements. Its purpose is to legislate requirements for Queensland which may not be relevant to the rest of Australia and to consolidate legislated requirements that affect building work.

Sustainable Planning Act

The Sustainable Planning Act is also a process driven document however its purpose is to set up and legislate the frameworks surrounding town planning and development approvals. It gives local councils and other nominated bodies the authority to both write local planning documents and enforce them. It sets up the frameworks for different levels of assessment such as self-assessable, code assessable and impact assessable development. The Act also standardises the application process for both development applications and building applications through the Integrated Development Assessment System (https://www.smarteda.qld.gov.au/forms.action%3bjsessionid=C02A5A1C6685BC65F651C07C2E8EEA17)

Australian Standards

Australian Standards become legislated once they are referenced by another legislated document such as the NCC. If a standard is not referenced by another legislated document it is considered best practice but is not mandatory. This is especially relevant when considering the NCC. Often superseded standards are still referenced in the NCC after new standards have been published to give the construction industry time to become accustomed to new standards before they are enforced.