It’s not too late to do the right thing

Everywhere I go, and where the conversation turns to the achievements of the Carr Government or your role as a Minister, everyone says that your one big mistake was the introduction of private certification. I mean everyone – other Ministers, political staffers, officials of Unions NSW, senior public servants in both the Department of Local Government and DIPNR etc – they all say this. And they say one other thing as well.

They say that you admit it.

I am writing to you, as the clock rolls slowly to Wednesday 10 August when you resignation takes effect, to ask that you do just that. We all know that it was an initiative that may have been made with the most benign of motives but it was one that was always going to be a disaster. Developers should never have the right to employ their own people to certify that the work they do complies with conditions of consent. It’s an illogical concept.

In 1996 when the debate was in full swing I met with you in a meeting organised by Labor Council. Michael Costa and I met with you in your office to try to convince you this was going to be a mistake. You were prepared to back the idea at the time but it wasn’t long before the Government was forced into the Campbell Inquiry as example after example of poor private practices came to light. Imagine these private certifiers thinking it more important to satisfy the needs of the developers who paid them than the community interest!

The only surprise to those of us who were confident that the system couldn’t work, was that it fell apart much earlier than even the strongest critics imagined.

But the Government still backed it, the Campbell Committee wasn’t game to tell you the idea was flawed from the start and the Government decided to establish an elaborate structure called the Building Professionals’ Board to try to make the unsustainable and questionable appear sustainable and beyond question. It’s like deciding what to do with a car designed to be held together by string - it doesn’t matter how much string you use, it’s just a bad idea.

And, to fund it, to expand its mandate to regulate employees of local government who were already well regulated, and collect fees from cash-strapped councils. Councils remain wildly and vigorously opposed to this.

And while the BPB gets bigger and bigger, it still has insufficient staff to regulate the private certifiers and still fails to carry out the audit role that DUAP wasn’t carrying out, much to their embarrassment, at the time of the Campbell Committee.

Michael Costa, if he gets the much-publicized job of reviewing Government spending should have a good look at them. I am sure he retains the view, of the inappropriateness of a private option in this crucial area of consumer and neighbourhood protection, that he held when we met with you in 1996.

I realize there is a big gap between everyone telling me that private certification was your biggest mistake and you acting quickly to rectify it. You might say that despite what everyone says (and that includes senior people in DUAP/DIPNR not game to tell you) the idea of giving developers this control was a good idea. The developers certainly thought so. But if everyone says it, maybe it is true.

Your resignation this morning has been received with mixed emotions in local government. I received it with hope and optimism.

You have seven days to wrap things up so that history treats you well. People love politicians who accept they have made mistakes and act to remedy them.

Why don’t you assure yourself of a place in history by renouncing the folly of the private certification option? You could restore development control to the hands of local government where is belongs and where it is well-regarded by the community - because it is done by people without a vested or financial interest in the development.

What do you think?

Regards

Ian Robertson

Secretary