Water Services Coordination Act 1995

The legislation directly affects four main groups. First, individuals who wish to carry out plumbing work—defined in s 59I as “work of a kind specified to be water supply plumbing, sanitary plumbing or drainage plumbing”—must obtain and maintain a licence. Clause 9 of Schedule 3 expressly contemplates regulations prohibiting unlicensed persons from performing such work, making the Act central to their ability to practise lawfully.

Second, the members and staff of the Plumbers Licensing Board (ss 59, 59A, 59G) are constituted and regulated by the statute. Membership is capped at nine persons appointed by the Minister “in accordance with the regulations” (s 59A). The Board’s internal governance, committees, remuneration and delegation practices are all to be fleshed out by regulation (Schedule 3, cll 1–7).

Third, the Minister responsible for the Act and the department principally assisting the Minister (defined in s 3) are given significant oversight, information and reporting responsibilities. The Minister may issue general directions (s 59E), obtain information and documents (s 59F), and must table directions in Parliament and include them in the department’s annual report. The department’s accountable authority must incorporate detailed statistics and forecasts about the Board’s workload in its annual report under the Financial Management Act 2006 (s 59H(2)).

Fourth, members of the public, property owners and the broader community benefit indirectly as the intended beneficiaries of safe plumbing standards. The Act’s long title refers to “the carrying out of plumbing work”, and the regulation-making powers in Schedule 3 extend to standards (cl 11), inspection and investigation (cl 12), and disciplinary publication (cl 8(m)), all aimed at public protection. Persons who lodge complaints against licence holders are protected by the confidentiality regime in s 60B(4), which prevents disclosure of their identity without consent.

Finally, the legislation touches persons or bodies whose existing rules or standards may be adopted by regulation (s 59L), such as Standards Australia, and those who provide training or assessment services that feed into the qualification requirements contemplated by Schedule 3 cl 8(c).

The Act creates few standalone duties, preferring instead to locate them in the regulations it authorises. Nevertheless, several duties can be identified on the face of the statute.

The Board is under a duty to perform the functions listed in s 59B and to give effect to lawful ministerial directions that do not trespass on individual licensing or disciplinary matters (s 59E(1)). Delegates must act within the terms of any delegation (s 59D(4)). The Board and its staff must comply with requests for information from the Minister (s 59F(3)) while respecting the statutory prohibition on disclosing complainant identities (s 59F(4)).

Persons to whom s 60B applies—former Coordinators of Water Services, current or former Board members, and anyone performing functions under the Act—owe a strict duty not to record, disclose or make use of information obtained in the course of duty except in the four permitted circumstances listed in s 60B(2). Breach carries a $5 000 penalty. A limited exception exists for statistical or summary data that cannot identify individuals or businesses (s 60B(3)).

Rights created by the Act are largely procedural. Licence holders or applicants will enjoy whatever rights are conferred by the regulations, including the right to apply to the State Administrative Tribunal for review of Board decisions (Schedule 3 cl 8(k)) and the right to be heard in disciplinary matters. The Minister has a statutory right to information and documents (s 59F(1)) and the power to give directions (s 59E). Members of Parliament receive an indirect right to scrutiny through the tabling requirements in s 59E(3)–(6) and the review report required by s 62(3).

The protection from liability in s 60A confers a right (or immunity) on any person who does something in good faith in the performance or purported performance of a function under the Act; neither an action in tort nor vicarious liability on the part of the Board or the Crown can succeed. The immunity extends to omissions and continues even if the relevant function could have been performed apart from the Act.

Enforcement is almost entirely dependent on the regulations. Section 59K(a) authorises the creation of offences punishable by a fine not exceeding $5 000. Section 59K(b) permits an infringement-notice scheme with modified penalties. No custodial penalties are contemplated.

The only offence created directly on the face of the Act is the confidentiality breach in s 60B(2), also carrying a $5 000 penalty. Protection from liability (s 60A) and the ministerial direction and information provisions contain no sanctions for non-compliance by the Board; instead, the Board is simply required to “give effect to any such direction” (s 59E(1)) and to comply with information requests (s 59F(3)).

Schedule 3 cl 12 contemplates regulations appointing or authorising inspectors with powers of entry to investigate complaints and inspect plumbing work. These powers will be the main practical enforcement tool once regulations are made. Disciplinary outcomes may include suspension or cancellation of licences (cl 8(e)), publication of those outcomes (cl 8(m)), and orders by the State Administrative Tribunal (cl 8(j)).

Fees recovered under the regulations are credited to the Building Services Account (s 59J(2)), providing a funding stream that indirectly supports enforcement activity.

The Act is tightly integrated with several other statutes. Most obviously, the Financial Management Act 2006 governs the Board’s financial accountability: acts of the Board are treated as services under the control of the relevant department (s 59H(1)(a)) and form part of the department’s operations for Part 5 reporting (s 59H(1)(b)). The department’s annual report must contain specific statistics on Board investigations, Tribunal matters, trends, forecasts and improvement proposals (s 59H(2)).

The Building Services (Complaint Resolution and Administration) Act 2011 is referenced in the definition of the “Building Services Account” into which licensing fees flow (s 59J(3)).

The State Administrative Tribunal Act 2004 and associated conferral legislation are presupposed by Schedule 3 cll 8(j) and (k), which authorise regulations to give the Tribunal disciplinary and review jurisdiction.

Section 59L permits regulations to adopt, with or without modification, rules, regulations, codes or standards made under any other Western Australian or Commonwealth Act, or standards issued by Standards Australia or similar bodies. Once adopted, such instruments become part of the regulatory scheme and are updated dynamically unless the regulations freeze them to a particular version.

The Interpretation Act 1984 continues to apply by virtue of the transitional provisions preserved in the compilation notes. The protection from liability in s 60A operates in addition to any common-law or other statutory immunities.

The statute’s own history shows repeated interaction with water-sector reform legislation: the Water Services Legislation Amendment and Repeal Act 2012 deleted large tranches of the original Act, changed its name, and reset the review cycle in s 62. The Economic Regulation Authority Act 2003 and the Statutes (Repeals and Minor Amendments) Act 2025 have also made targeted changes.

The compilation table reveals a progressive narrowing. The most significant recent structural change occurred via the Water Services Legislation Amendment and Repeal Act 2012 Pt 8, which deleted the bulk of the former licensing and water-services provisions (Parts 2–5), renamed the statute, and substituted a new review obligation in s 62 keyed to the fifth anniversary of the commencement of that 2012 amending section. The explanatory context implicit in the long-title amendment and the deletion of water-coordination functions was the transfer of broader water licensing to other regimes, leaving only the plumber-specific elements.

The Statutes (Repeals and Minor Amendments) Act 2025 s 31 made two minor but noteworthy tweaks: it amended s 60A by deleting subsection (1a) and repealed the now-redundant s 60C. These appear to be clean-up measures rather than policy shifts.

Earlier, the Building Services (Complaint Resolution and Administration) Act 2011 s 130 updated the account reference in s 59J and adjusted s 59H. The State Administrative Tribunal (Conferral of Jurisdiction) Amendment and Repeal Act 2004 inserted the Tribunal references that now appear throughout Schedule 3.

The overall trend of recent changes has been to streamline the statute, remove obsolete water-agency coordination machinery, align financial and complaint-resolution pathways with contemporary building-services legislation, and ensure ongoing five-year parliamentary scrutiny of the Board’s utility.

The printed text of the Act itself contains no reported court decisions, statistics or specific controversies. It does, however, anticipate litigation or quasi-litigation by conferring jurisdiction on the State Administrative Tribunal. Schedule 3 cl 8(j) allows regulations to give the Tribunal power to hear disciplinary matters and impose penalties; cl 8(k) allows review of Board and committee decisions. The compilation notes reference transitional provisions in the State Administrative Tribunal (Conferral of Jurisdiction) Amendment and Repeal Act 2004 Pt 5 and the State Administrative Tribunal Act 2004 ss 167 and 169, indicating that Parliament foresaw the need for procedural continuity when jurisdiction was transferred.

Section 59E(2) expressly shields the Board’s licensing and disciplinary functions from ministerial direction in individual cases, a provision likely inserted to reduce the risk of judicial review on grounds of improper political interference. The confidentiality offence in s 60B and the tort immunity in s 60A have the potential to generate satellite litigation, but no such cases are recorded in the Act or its notes.

The periodic review obligation in s 62 has itself been amended (most recently to delete paragraphs (a) and (b) and insert new paragraphs (ba) and (bb) focusing on the Board’s effectiveness and necessity). This suggests that earlier reviews may have questioned whether a stand-alone Plumbers Licensing Board remained justified, although the statute does not disclose the outcomes of those reviews.

In the absence of any cited case law within the provided text, the Act’s controversy profile appears to centre on the policy choice to regulate plumbers through a dedicated Board while simultaneously subjecting that Board to regular sunset-style scrutiny.

Most practitioners assume that once a person obtains a plumbing licence the regulatory burden ends; in reality the regulations contemplated by Schedule 3 cl 8(f) can impose ongoing conditions or restrictions that may be varied without fresh application, and cl 8(e) allows for suspension or cancellation on grounds that are themselves left to regulation. The apparently simple definition of “plumber” in s 3—“a person who carries out plumbing work as defined in section 59I”—is circular and entirely dependent on what the regulations ultimately “specify”.

The ministerial information right in s 59F(4) contains a subtle trap: the Minister cannot obtain identifying complainant information without consent, yet the Board’s annual reporting obligation under s 59H(2) requires aggregated statistics on “investigations and inquiries” and “matters that have been brought before the State Administrative Tribunal”. Drafters of Board procedures must therefore maintain two data streams—identifiable and de-identified—to avoid breaching s 59F while still feeding the department’s reporting duty.

Section 59D(1) prohibits delegation of “any disciplinary power conferred by the regulations or another written law”. Because the content of those disciplinary powers is not yet known, any delegation instrument must be drafted with extreme caution; an overly broad delegation that inadvertently captures a power later classified as disciplinary will be invalid.

The tort immunity in s 60A(3) applies “even though the thing done … may have been capable of being done whether or not this Act had been enacted”. This wording is wider than many comparable immunity clauses and may protect acts that are only loosely connected to the licensing regime. Conversely, the good-faith requirement is not defined, leaving Board members and inspectors exposed if a court later finds that their motive was mixed.

Finally, the adoption-by-reference power in s 59L(2) imports Standards Australia documents “as in force from time to time” unless the regulations freeze the text. A plumber who relies on a printed copy of an Australian Standard may therefore find that an unnotified amendment has altered the required work method, creating a compliance gap that is invisible until an inspector arrives.

Compliance begins with obtaining the correct class of licence once the regulations under Schedule 3 cl 8 are in force. Applicants must satisfy the Board on the qualifications, experience and competency requirements specified for that class (cl 8(c)–(d)). Because the Board may impose conditions or restrictions (cl 8(f)), every licence holder should maintain a current copy of their licence instrument and understand any bespoke obligations.

Plumbing work must be performed in accordance with the standards prescribed or adopted under cll 10 and 11 and s 59L. Where an external code is adopted on a rolling basis, subscription to the issuing body’s update service is prudent. Records of all work should be kept in a form that would satisfy an inspector appointed under cl 12; powers of entry will almost certainly be included in the regulations.

Complaints and disciplinary processes require attention to procedural fairness. If a complaint is received, the regulations will prescribe the investigation pathway (cl 8(i)) and the right to review by the State Administrative Tribunal (cl 8(k)). Licence holders should therefore retain contemporaneous records of site conditions, materials used, test results and client communications.

Information-handling policies must segregate data that could identify a complainant (s 59F(4) and s 60B). Only persons listed in s 60B(1) are bound by the confidentiality offence, but best practice is to treat all plumbing-related personal information as restricted.

Board members and delegates must keep delegations current and ensure that disciplinary functions are never delegated (s 59D(1)). The Board itself must respond to ministerial directions within the statutory limits and facilitate the department’s detailed annual reporting under s 59H(2); failure to supply workload statistics, trend analysis or improvement proposals could expose the department to criticism in Parliament.

Annual review of the Minister’s s 62 report is advisable for industry participants so that anticipated regulatory changes can be anticipated. Because the Act is essentially a shell awaiting detailed regulations, the most effective compliance step is to monitor the Western Australian Government Gazette and the Building Services Account website for the making of the Plumbers Licensing Regulations and any subsequent amendments. Until those regulations exist, the statutory prohibition on unlicensed work (Schedule 3 cl 9) remains latent; once proclaimed, however, carrying out even minor drainage plumbing without a licence will expose the contractor to fines, infringement notices and potential disciplinary action.

In summary, compliance is achieved by (1) holding a current, conditioned licence, (2) performing work to the adopted technical standards, (3) maintaining auditable records, (4) observing strict information-handling protocols, and (5) participating in the Board’s continuing professional development or training monitoring activities. Given the breadth of the regulation-making head of power, the prudent practitioner will treat the current printed Act as a map rather than a complete rule book.