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    • Use of Fire-Retardant Coatings
    • Variation Reduction Strategy
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Information last reviewed at:
07 September 2007

Variation Reduction Strategy

Efforts in the past to reduce the number of State and Territory variations in the Building Code of Australia (BCA) have been successful, with almost 80% of variations reduced between 1990 and 2003. But, in recent years, the overall reduction in variations has been offset to some extent by the emergence of new variations, both within and outside the BCA.

The ABCB Strategic Plan 2007-2011 aims to eliminate all State and Territory variations in the BCA by 2011. The Variation Reduction Strategy is a project included in the ABCB's current work program which aims to deliver this. The Variation Reduction Strategy has delivered a modest reduction of variations in BCA 2007, with several further reductions identified for BCA 2008.

Under the ABCB Intergovernmental Agreement, signatory Ministers have committed their jurisdictions to:

• take reasonable steps to consolidate all of their State or Territory's mandatory requirements affecting the design, construction and performance of buildings into the consolidated version of the BCA;
• use the BCA to set the minimum requirements for design, construction and performance of buildings throughout Australia;
• provide an annual report to Ministers highlighting any new variations and non-adoption of BCA amendments by the States and Territories, reporting areas of duplication and inconsistency in State and Territory legislation and identifying opportunities for greater consistency in building regulations between the States and Territories; and
• restrict any new variations by, as far as practicable:
• limiting variations to those arising from particular geographical, geological or climatic factors, as defined in the BCA;
• requiring that any variations be subject to a regulatory impact assessment; and
• requiring that any variation be approved by the State or Territory Minister.

The Council of Australian Governments has also identified building regulation as a "hot spot" area where overlapping and inconsistent regulatory regimes are impeding economic activity and has reinforced the commitments made in the ABCB Intergovernmental Agreement to achieve national consistency in building regulations.