I think this Board are just calling everyone's bluff.  Of course member's of the public and unlicensed people carrying out plumbing, gasfitting or drainlaying need to be held to account for this.  If they do this work they are breaking the law.  So there is an irony here.  The Board it would appear are also not following the law of the land by collecting the Offences Fee - I thought the information provided by the Office of the Auditor General at the RRC hearing was reasonably clear - it is not a fee - no goods and services are given in return.  It is more akin to a levy - and the Act does not allow the Board to collect this.  The Act may be poor in its wording, it may have been ill conceived or rushed through Parliament or a million other things, but it clearly does not give the PGDB the power to collect this levy.  So we have a body breaking the law so that it can point the finger at others breaking the law.  Is this the worse kind of hypocrisy?   The Board need to fund these costs from within their budget without breaking the law.  And they, like the rest of us, need to then lobby Government when the Act comes up for Review.  Perhaps we could give them a few clues as to how to cut some of their costs so they could afford to carry out the functions required of them.  The first thing I would do is cull some of their legal department becasue clearly the advice they are providing isn't good.  They may also like to consider some pay cuts for senior staff - a shift to cheaper offices in a less central place.  Oh and before they mention how much the Federation is costing them in terms of resources answers OIA's and dealing with complaints to various Government bodies - if they did their job properly in the first place, if they followed the regulations and statutes - then they wouldn't be getting the complaints, they wouldn't be having to appear at RRC meetings, they wouldn't need to be responding to the Charities Commission or the Ombudsman or the OAG questions. 

Hi guys, Another brilliant `Practitioner issue` there is no doubt that the federation is a `Thorn in the side` of the board, which is run by members that equal or even better the board’s  members. The industry now has a team that shows exceptional investigation skills to make sure that tradesmen are treated fairly. Well done the Federation, cheers

hi guys,watchdog i wish all them board guys would be `Beamed Up`to another planet,cheers

The Building and Housing Group will call for submissions from the Board and
the public - and that’s when we must be on our game. It is imperative we
have our say, and say it loud and with numbers. Recent events with the
Regulations Review Committee have shown that Master Plumbers are happy
to side with the Board whether right or wrong. We wonder what their grass
roots members think of this – were they even asked?




I found this point interesting - I don't recall being asked/consulted nor informed of the stance of this member group - I am writing a letter to pull my membership

I don't remember being asked either.  And for the record its $1250.00