Our Advocacy Agenda in Queensland
There are some critical milestones being tackled by our upcoming working group that discusses the Community Titles Schemes legislation. A new government relations strategy for the next 2-3 years is guiding our approach as is our continued commitment to professionalising the sector with a robust accreditation pathway.
The Community Titles Legislation Working Group
The Community Titles Legislation Working Group discuss strata issues in four stages, all issues specifically raised by SCAQ in our 2020 Election Priorities. We made 7 recommendations, with 6 of them directed towards the Department of Justice and we are ready to finalise those pressing consumer issues. SCAQ is one of only six stakeholders.
Stage 1 will commence with the current issues facing our sector, primarily alternative insurance arrangements and the Queensland Treasury’s response to the recommendations made by the ACCC.
Stage 2 will involve some of the outstanding recommendations from the QUT Property Law Review which was conducted from 2014 - 2016. This includes one of the major priorities for SCAQ which involves allowing bodies corporate to better self-regulate with reduced restrictions on by-laws.
Stage 3 is focussed on the commitments made by the government during the election period which covers a lot of SCAQ introduced topics including body corporate manager licensing and regulations, an expanded dispute resolution framework, and more ability to do a review of management rights and caretaking duties.
The final stage will look at harmonising BUGTA with the BCCM Act to assess whether bringing these two acts together will assist with greater “regulatory uniformity” across bodies corporate in Queensland.
SCAQ has made significant steps towards becoming a respected and credible stakeholder group for many government councils, such as the BCCM Stakeholder Group, the Ministerial Construction Council, and the QBCC Stakeholder Group. To continue and build on this success, the Board is developing a comprehensive government relations strategy spanning the coming 2-3 years.
This strategy will be comprehensive and include a specific plan that ensures the priorities we need to advocate for are heard by the right government representatives. With three levels of government there is much work to be done in accelerating body corporate to the front of mind of our government. It is critical for SCAQ to develop a vision of our industry and organisation for the next 3 years and to set key milestones that take us to the next level of success.