Whoever is in government at the end of the month will have an opportunity to overhaul the state’s building laws to significantly improve the quality of residential construction in NSW. Cynical readers of recent history might question if either side of politics will take advantage of that opportunity. Yet the chance is there, provided the politicians can be pressed to take it.

The chance arises because of the widespread acceptance, in the wake of the Christmas Eve cracking of the Opal Tower, that dramatic measures are required to ensure people can buy and live in apartments that won’t crumble around them.

Consider what Matt Kean, the state’s Better Regulation Minister, said last month: “An apartment owner has no meaningful way to assess the risk that a new building has major defects, yet they suffer the consequences if it does.” That’s a senior minister in a government that has presided over a long residential construction boom, describing the state of the law at the end of that boom.

Kean proposes to change the situation. One way he proposes to do so is to have, in effect, a tougher cop on the beat. The government says it will create the position of “building commissioner”. The commissioner will hold responsibility for licensing building professionals, investigating residential building projects, and regulating and auditing building plans. All hard to argue with.