Goel and Building Services Board (WA)

The applicant, Mr. Goel, sought to have his Victorian building practitioner registration recognised in Western Australia under the *Mutual Recognition Act 1992* (Cth). The Building Services Board (WA) had imposed conditions on his Western Australian licence, limiting it to specific classes of domestic building work. Mr. Goel appealed this decision to the State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the conditions imposed by the Building Services Board resulted in an equivalence of occupations as required by the *Mutual Recognition Act 1992* (Cth). Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the restricted Western Australian licence was as near as possible to the applicant's existing Victorian registration.

The Tribunal, applying the principles of mutual recognition, found that equivalence was achieved by limiting the applicant's Western Australian licence to classes 1(a), 2, 4, and 10 of the Building Code of Australia. This limitation was considered to provide as near as possible an equivalence with the applicant's current Victorian licence. Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision of the Building Services Board.