On 27 June 2024, Property Council submitted on MBIE’s consultation: removing barriers to using overseas building products.
Why this matters to our members
Property Council advocates for the creation and retention of a well-designed, functional and sustainable built environment. We aim to enable opportunities to build sustainable and resilient communities, capable of meeting future needs.
Our view
Property Council strongly supports the proposal to accept more overseas standards from overseas standards organisations and standards certification schemes. We believe the proposed changes will enhance competition and innovation, whilst reducing red tape. In saying that, we believe there may be some practical complexities with the proposals as they currently stand, and we are eager to keep engaged with MBIE as this consultation progresses.
We made the following recommendations to MBIE:
- Take a holistic approach in assessing which overseas standards to recognise from overseas product organisations and standards certifications schemes;
- Clarify that MBIE will be verifying the appropriateness of the overseas standards;
- Consult with a technical interest group who have the appropriate expertise to verify overseas standards as and when required;
- Develop translation documents to ensure equivalency of overseas standards and help resolve the complexity of reconciling different standards;
- MBIE closely watch the system rollout to ensure that unintended consequences of Building Consenting Authorities unnecessarily upgrading product requirements does not occur; and
- If Building Consent Authorities are to be indemnified, then the responsibility and risk flows need to be explicitly explained by MBIE.