VBA Mail 28 June

It's been almost a year since I became CEO of the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) and a lot of activity has been underway to improve our operations.

The VBA has made it clear that improved consumer outcomes are front and centre of our regulatory aims. One of the first initiatives I led as CEO was the development of new regulatory policies, set out in the Regulatory Policy Statement. The Statement makes it clear that consumer outcomes are our over-riding objective and that we will use our powers to their fullest extent to improve them.

An example of this was our enforcement action against Gippsland man Ashwin Datta, who was convicted and ordered to pay more than $100,000 following a VBA investigation. The VBA found he was not a registered builder, nor was his company a registered building company. The penalty imposed included more than $60,000 in compensation to the impacted consumer.

This is just one example of the VBA's risk-based approach to responding to non-compliance and disciplining rogue practitioners, removing them from the building system. In the first three quarters of this financial year, our compliance and enforcement work has led to more than $300,000 in penalties imposed on to builders and plumbers who have done the wrong thing, in addition to more than 30 criminal proceedings underway and more than 200 cautions being finalised.

Our compliance and enforcement activities continue to evolve to be more scalable, efficient, connected and effective. This will be done through an investment in the right tools and people, and increasingly using data and intelligence to inform these regulatory activities.

This work is complemented by the release of the Compliance and Enforcement Framework, which outlines what practitioners and consumers can expect from us as a regulator, including how we use our regulatory powers and functions.

The VBA is also embarking on an ambitious reform agenda to allow us to deliver strategic goals and remain responsive to changing priorities. This is supported by the Government, which provided additional funding to the VBA in the most recent Budget to improve our systems and expand our regulatory footprint, to get more boots on the ground and make us a more effective regulator.

To maintain connections with industry, new Special Advisory Panels on building and plumbing have been established, meeting for the first time in early June. Each panel provides advice to me about a range of matters, including the VBA and industry's practices and performance, ways to improve the consumer experience and local, national and international factors that impact industry behaviour.

In addition, earlier this week I was pleased to announce Steven Baxas as the VBA's new State Building Surveyor. Mr Baxas will assume the role from 5 August 2024 and brings more than three decades of local government experience to the VBA as a qualified building surveyor and fire engineer.

Mr Baxas replaces Andrew Cialini, who I would like to thank for the enormous contribution he has made to improving the technical expertise at the VBA. Mr Cialini has accepted an ongoing role leading a VBA priority project to grow the pool of building surveyors in the state.

It is an exciting time at the VBA and I look forward to updating you as our work evolves.

Finally, I want to thank all of those who have reached out to me over the last 12 months to tell me of their experiences with the VBA. These insights have been invaluable as I work with the Executive Team and our VBA people to improve how we serve Victorians.

Thank you

Anna Cronin

Chief Executive Officer

Victorian Building Authority