The ACT government is being pushed to improve trade licensing requirements. 

Five of Canberra's biggest construction companies have joined with the CFMEU to call on the ACT government to introduce compulsory licences. 

Currently, no accreditation is needed for someone to call themselves a joiner, carpenter, painter, tiler, water proofer, bricklayer, glazier, or plasterer in the ACT. 

The unlikely coalition of the CFMEU and building companies has written to the ACT government calling for reforms that would see tradies put through a comprehensive licensing process to work on sites in the ACT.

“Over the past decade, the ACT has experienced a construction boom,” the letter to the government says.

“The ACT has also experienced a boom in the number of complaints about serious project failures.”

Sustainable Building and Construction Minister Rebecca Vassarotti says trade licence reform is on the government's agenda, but other matters take priority.

“Engineer registration and proper developer licensing [are] the two priority projects that we have heard very clearly from stakeholders, including the union, that they are priority areas to work on,” Ms Vassarotti said in response.

“There are opportunities to strengthen the system, so we will absolutely work with stakeholders including the union in terms of identifying particular trades if there is a need to strengthen the process.”

But she said some work is underway.

“We have been working with other jurisdictions, particularly around the development of a framework around registration,” Ms Vassarotti said.

“In the ACT, while some trades are not licensed all of that work is required to be supervised by a licensed builder as well as a clear certification process.”