Airport building controls

Building and construction activities at 'core-regulated' federal leased airports must be approved by the Airport Building Controller (ABC). The ABC is appointed under Commonwealth law to administer the airport building control regime. The Airport Lessee Company (ALC) must also approve the activity from a planning and airport operational perspective.

Airport Building Control Reform

Airport Building Control plays a vital role in facilitating safe and efficient development at Australia's federal leased airports. ABCs are appointed under Commonwealth law, performing a statutory function by administering the Airport (Building Control) Regulations 1996.

As part of the 2023–24 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), the Australian Government announced an increase in funding appropriated to the department to provide Airport Building Control services. This is to improve flexibility and to ensure sustainability of ABC supply into the future. To support this, the department is undertaking a number of reforms and updates:

Flexibility in ABC Services

Currently, the department is limited in how it can support ABCs and ALCs to process large numbers of building applications if sudden increases in the volume of work are observed.

As agreed by government at the 2023-24 MYEFO, the department needs to ensure any future contract arrangements include provisions to improve the flexibility of ABC services to be able to uplift services as demand increases.

The department is planning to implement 'demand-driven' flexibility into its ABC services as part an improved contract arrangement to take effect in mid-2025.

Under this improved contract arrangement, the department expects it will have the ability to provide additional paid hours for ABC services to be undertaken at any federal leased airport which is experiencing a significant uptick in the volume of building activities.

These additional paid hours for ABC services will be applied at any of the core-regulated federal leased airports in Australia, and will be administered directly by the department.

Charging reforms

Building proponents (applicants) must pay a fee for ABC services. These fees form part of government revenue, known as cost recovery.

The department is working to implement a charging reform which will increase the revenue generated without hindering or limiting development and investment and more closely align to the Australian Government Charging Framework. The aim is to recover approximately 70% of costs incurred in administering the Airport Building Control function.

In order to implement the charging reform, a new fee schedule has been developed in consultation with stakeholders. Currently, ABC fees are charged dependent upon the airport location (e.g. in Hobart the fees differ from those charged in Brisbane). This can mean that proponents of developments of similar size or value can pay very different fees, depending on their location. The new fee schedule will provide for a flat fee structure, regardless of location, and increases in fees will depend on the size of the development.

To facilitate the charging reform, amendments to the Airports (Building Control) Regulations 1996 are required. The department is aiming to have these amendments in place by mid-2026.

Airport Building Control Online

The Airport Building Control function of the department is supported by an online portal (known as ABC Online or ABCO), through which all building applications are made and processed. The IT platform which supports ABCO is nearing end of life, and requires upgrading.

The ABCO upgrade project has been split into 2 phases, with Phase 1 currently underway:

Phase 1 supports changes necessary to support future fee schedule changes and other process-flows (e.g. how refunds are processed through the system). The department is aiming to have Phase 1 complete by mid-2025.

Phase 2 will rectify existing system issues, improve functionality and as the current asset is at its end of life, will support the change to the new operating environment. These changes are currently planned to be completed by mid-2026.

To ensure the new upgrades are manageable, the department is working with users of ABCO via a technical working group to implement these upgrades in a logical and user-friendly way.