Weld Australia warns Economic Reform Roundtable: Slash ‘red tape’ or save lives?

WITH the Albanese Government’s Economic Reform Roundtable kicking off today, Weld Australia is calling out the false promise of deregulation.

According to Weld Australia, the Productivity Commission’s push to 'slash red tape' completely misdiagnoses Australia’s productivity challenge.

"The problem is not standards," a Weld Australia spokesman said. "It is non-compliance and weak enforcement. Regulations like the National Construction Code (NCC) and Australian Standards exist to protect people, property and the environment and underpin economic resilience".

Geoff Crittenden, CEO of Weld Australia, said,  “What the Productivity Commission calls ‘red tape’ are the very rules that keep people alive and our major infrastructure and assets safe and standing.

“Let’s be honest about what’s in the firing line: the National Construction Code, building codes, and Australian Standards. These are not there to stifle growth or productivity. They exist to protect people, property and the environment. Deregulation is not reform. It’s negligence.

“If anyone thinks safety standards are ‘excessive’, ask the family of the worker who fell through a roof and never came home. Ask the parents of a young apprentice who died in a confined space. Ask the owners staring at cracking walls in non-compliant apartments, or households whose homes burned to the ground because a cheap battery exploded.

"Ask the state governments forced to rebuild infrastructure at more than double the initial construction price because it wasn’t built to Australian Standards in the first place,” Mr Crittenden said.

“Removing regulations and standards boosts margins and profits for corner-cutters. It doesn’t build a safer, more productive nation; it builds risk.

“Australia’s problem is not too many rules. It is too little compliance; too little enforcement of the rules. In construction particularly, too many players only worry about standards if they get caught. Compliance and enforcement are chronically under-resourced. Against that reality, calls to ‘slash red tape’ are not only laughable, they reveal a complete misunderstanding of what is going on in this country.

“If we want to go the American way — weak compliance, big profits for a few, and catastrophic failures for the rest — keep talking deregulation,” Mr Crittenden said. “If we want a productive, modern economy, look to the countries that actually top the global productivity tables. Some of europe’s most productive economies like Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, are also among the most regulated. They don’t cut standards to grow. They enforce standards to grow.

“Talk of freezing the NCC or watering down Australian Standards is dangerously naïve. The right response is enforcement: certify fabricators against recognised standards, inspect before steel is erected, and hold everyone to the same rules, including overseas suppliers. That’s how you lift quality, extend asset life and truly improve productivity.”

Weld Australia said Australia has already been paying the price of weak compliance. Recent cases include a Brisbane rail footbridge installed despite 1,150 welding non-conformances; a major recreation centre roof collapse during construction; and a flood of low-quality imported heat-pump water heaters in the absence of a clear performance standard. These are not isolated incidents. They are systemic red flags that shorten design life and push unplanned costs onto governments and communities.

Weld Australia’s is calling on the Economic Reform Roundtable to:

1. Enforce a level playing field for all fabricated steel: Mandate and enforce that all fabricated steel erected in Australia complies with AS/NZS ISO 3834, whether fabricated locally or overseas. This is the minimum to ensure quality and safety without disadvantaging Australian fabricators.
2. Adopt a harmonised procurement framework that bakes in compliance: Incorporate the South Australian ST-SS-S1 model into the NCC and state government specifications (including clause 7.7 for overseas fabrication) so that inspection and competence requirements are clear before steel is erected.
3. Establish a National Fabrication Authority: Create an independent, not-for-profit body to certify Australian and overseas companies to the same standards and to inspect fabricated steel before installation, mirroring Canada’s successful approach via the Canadian Welding Bureau. This can be implemented without new legislation by aligning State Government technical regulations.
4. Measure what matters: whole-of-life cost and economic resilience: Shift procurement and policy settings from lowest-price wins to asset life, maintenance burden and safety outcomes. That is how productivity genuinely improves.

“Standards enable safe innovation, consistent quality and predictable markets. The choice is not growth or safety. It is growth through safety and compliance. Where Australia is falling down is not the rule book. It is the absence of a capable, independent system to check and enforce the rules before failure occurs,” Mr Crittenden said.

“Australia needs courage and conviction to enforce regulations and Australian Standards. If the round table delivers one thing this week, let it be a commitment to compliance: one set of rules for everyone, verified independently, with safety and whole-of-life value front and centre.”

Weld Australia represents the welding profession in Australia. Its members are made up of individual welding professionals and companies of all sizes. Weld Australia members are involved almost every facet of Australian industry and make a significant contribution to the nation’s economy.

The primary goal of Weld Australia is to ensure that the Australian welding industry remains locally and globally competitive, both now and into the future. Weld Australia is the Australian representative member of the International Institute of Welding (IIW).

https://weldaustralia.com.au/