News | 27 November

To: CCF Victoria staff, members and stakeholders.

Good afternoon.

Today is a key day that we’ve all been waiting for – 28 consecutive days of ZERO cases in Victoria and NO active cases.

This is the widely accepted benchmark for elimination of the Coronavirus in Victoria. This is something that Victorians can be very proud of.  We should pause for just a moment to reflect on and thank all the workers in the Health Sector, the much maligned contact tracers at the DHHS, the testing teams out across the state and the also the public servants in DJPR, DHHS, DPC, Dept of Transport & Infrastructure and government agencies WorkSafe and VBA, that have worked so hard to achieve this result.

Of the 20,345 positive cases in Victoria, there were only 142 positive cases recorded in our industry – do the math – that is a remarkable achievement and a tribute to the effort of all Building & Construction industry stakeholders to communicate, to improve hygiene, to follow the rules. Please accept my personal congratulations and gratitude on a job very well done. 

Of course, we cannot be complacent.  There always remains the risk that the virus could be re-introduced to Victoria from interstate visitors and when overseas travel returns.  However for now, we are now in a better position to deal with that eventuality.

Industry Guidelines Review

Following government announcements last Sunday regarding further relaxation of restrictions – now at the Last Step from 22 November, the Industry COVID-19 Guidelines are being reviewed to ensure accuracy of advice.

The Industry Working Group met this week to finalise the review of the Industry Guidelines. Worksafe’s Foundations for Safety Victoria Group met yesterday to review the advice on wearing face masks at work, consequent on moving to the Last Step of COVID-19 restrictions.  

We await their revised Information Paper to include in Revision 9 of the Industry COVID-19 Guidelines, which we expect to issue / circulate to you early next week and further announcements by the Premier, set for Sunday, 6 December.

VESI URD Draft Standards released for comment

The ESV distribution companies are conducting a major review and harmonisation project of the VESI Technical Standards & Specification.  CCF has been working on the Electrical Technical Standards Harmonisation Committee to implement a unified set of Urban Residential Development (URD) Design and Construction Standards.

Facilitated by Powercor / CitiPower, CCF is represented on this Technical Working Group by Geoff Reynolds (GRM Consulting – technical consultant to CCF) and Glenn Shallard (Electrical Operations Manager – Winslow).  We have also been also working in close association with ALDE through their representative, Anthony Grodzki (Executive Member, Land Development Engineers Inc).  I wish to personally acknowledge and thank Geoff, Glenn & Anthony for their work in this regard.

VESI, through the VEDN is expecting to release the new standard in 1Q 2021, following a public comment period from the industry and a number of project trials.  The majority of the changes proposed will provide greater clarity, transparency and harmonisation of the Standards. 

After a couple of technical glitches in receiving the original draft standards, attached is a link to the “DRAFT VESI URD Standards (012) document for your reference and review.

https://www.ccfvic.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/VESI-URD-Draft-Standards.pdf

CCF invite your comments with any feedback from interested CCF members in this sector being sent to us at support@ccfvic.com.au office by Thursday, 4 December 2020.  At this time, we will consolidate the responses and submit to the Electrical Technical Standards Harmonisation Committee for their consideration.  We will also place this feedback on the CCF member portal with a copy of the latest standards as they are released, for your reference.

Until my next update …. keep well – keep safe.

Kind regards

John Kilgour

CEO, CCF Victoria

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