One of the Australian Building Codes Board's (ABCB) primary roles is to update and maintain the National Construction Code (NCC) to ensure it is part of an effective and contemporary regulatory system. Potential changes to the NCC must be considered in accordance with the Council of Australian Governments best practice regulation principles and be subject to regulatory impact assessment. The ABCB investigates alternative means of achieving a desired result, and if intervention is necessary, the NCC sets the minimum regulatory requirements that are proportional to the issue addressed.
The NCC is updated based on feedback from users through the Board's Proposal for Change process, to reflect agreed outcomes from the Board's work program, and to action Government policy decisions.
The process of developing a new edition of the NCC includes producing drafts, seeking and analysing public comment, consideration by the Building Codes Committee and Plumbing Code Committee, impact assessment of changes not requiring a full Regulation Impact Statement, and endorsement by the Board.
You can read about the public comment process for updates to the NCC here.
Documents available for consideration as part of a Performance Solution
The majority of NCC referenced documents, such as Australian Standards, form part of the Deemed-to-Satisfy Provisions of the NCC. Therefore, use of a version of a document other than the one referenced in the NCC requires the use of a Performance Solution.
The ABCB has established an initiative to promote revised or amended documents that are not referenced in the NCC, but have been accepted as being suitable for referencing in a future edition of the NCC, and therefore may be suitable for consideration as part of a Performance Solution. Remember, practitioners have choices about which NCC compliance path they wish to follow, but are responsible for demonstrating compliance through adequate documentation of the Assessment Methods used.