This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
Senior builder members of the Housing Industry Association are looking to overthrow its Canberra based leaders including HIA chief executive Ron Silberberg.
The growing revolt against the Canberra based executive, and in particular against Dr. Silberberg, has continued to grow in recent months as the scandal and debacle over builders warranty insurance has become more and more a political issue.
Hundreds of Australian would-be home owners have been left fighting multi-national insurance companies over what has been described as worthless building warranties that have been sold for nearly 10 years via the HIA retail shop-front Home Owners Warranty Ltd.
Since July 2002, for consumers to collect on their Home Owners Warranty policy builders have had to die, disappear or become insolvent. Meanwhile, the HIA has banked millions of dollars worth of commissions, more aptly seen as kickbacks, from insurance companies who write the policies.
According to disaffected members of the HIA, its executive in Canberra is using lawyers to intimidate and silence critics such as its arch nemesis the Builders Collective, an organisation founded by an award winning former HIA member Phil Dwyer.
“We are heading for a major revolt,” one senior HIA member said yesterday. “This organisation is full of yes men. The HIA is no longer about its members. It’s about collecting commission off warranty insurance – a warranty insurance that offers no protection whatsoever to consumers,” the New South Wales based senior HIA member told Australian Property Journal.
“The HIA really needs to take a long look at itself. It’s become a boys club rather than an association of members.”
National president of the Builders Collective, Mr. Phil Dwyer, today finds himself before the Supreme Court of ACT defending alleged defamation against the HIA’s executive director of media relation Mr. Christopher Lamont.
Court documents reveal, back in April, Mr. Dwyer sent a letter of complaint to the Prime Minister Mr. John Howard over alleged inaction by the Small Business Affairs Department in relation to builders warranty insurance. Prior to joining the HIA, Lamont was the Chief of Staff of Small Business Minister Ms. Fran Bailey.
The Dwyer and Lamont matter is before a directions hearing in Canberra this morning.
Yesterday, a member of the senior executive of the HIA told Australian Property Journal: “Builders warranty insurance is not an issue and anyway it’s all State governments fault anyway, they forced it upon us and consumers.”
This is despite, as revealed by a HIA senior executive that the HIA’s own internal surveys reveal that home owners warranty is still one of the top issues for HIA members in Australia.
According to the source, the reason that HIA members still dislike home owners warranty is “due to HIA members having to underwrite the insurance companies by providing unconditional bank guarantees and deeds of indemnities which the insurers can recover, at their prerogative, in the event of a claim payout”.
According to transcripts from a 2003 media conference involving the HIA and the Victorian government, the HIA lobbied heavily for the introduction of the new look builders warranty insurance that operate today. Their claims that these ‘reforms’ would be good for members have largely gone unfulfilled, besides which the consumer detriment has been growing steadily and is now at crisis point.
By Nelson Yap
