Construction ministry to solve building woes

When the crisis emerged, the authority chairman, Barry Brown, and his board had only just been appointed. Before this, for about 15 months, the building industry had waited, expectantly and in frustration, for the Government to make those appointments. During this critical period, interim non-mandated governance ruled.

The reality is that Mr Brown and his authority were handed a severely weakened industry and its control systems. This process started in the mid-1980s when the Government introduced what was fashionably called light-handed regulation. With hindsight, we see it went too far and the market reform intentions found their expression in a parallel removal of Government support for many vital aspects of the industry.

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