The Board

The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is a standards writing body responsible for the National Construction Code, WaterMark and CodeMark Australia Certification Schemes.

We are a joint initiative of the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments in Australia, together with the building and plumbing industries to improve productivity through the consolidation of all on-site construction requirements into a single code.

Our focus is on developing and maintaining minimum, proportionate and cost effective technical requirements that provide for the health and safety, amenity and accessibility, and sustainability of buildings. Moreover, the ABCB endeavours to make sure the Code is an industry staple—working hard to consolidate and simplify the technical requirements, improving industry understanding and ensuring national consistency

Established by an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), the Board consists of 18 members, including:

• an independent Chair
• a representative from the Commonwealth, state and territory agencies responsible for building matters
• up to 7 industry representatives
• a representative of the Australian Local Government Association.

The ABCB is an agency within the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. The ABCB reports to the Australian Government Minister and State and Territory Ministers responsible for building and plumbing regulatory matters, known as the Building Ministers' Meeting.

The work of the ABCB is delivered by the ABCB Office.

The Board meets several times each year, but decisions of the Board are most prominently seen in the published updates to the National Construction Code. From November 2022, we will publish a brief Public Record after each meeting to give interested parties more visibility of our work and the matters we are considering. Some matters need to remain confidential due to specific confidentiality requirements or being part of a government/ministerial decision process. These confidential or deliberative matters will not be presented in the Public Records.

Links to the public records of board meetings can be found in the list below.