Have a look at the office of fair trading to see what are your obligations and that of the contractor.
When you select a contractor, ask to see his licence and licence number.
If he won't show you then there's something wrong.
Make sure he is licenced for the work you need to be done when building your new home.
Don't ask the council for good builders use the office of fair trading or speak to local people around the area who have built a home within the last 10 years.
Most faults occurr within 10 years.
If you are building in brick use a brick that has a high fire rating as some bricks are quite permeable to moisture or heat.
Once upon a time clinker bricks or bricks that were over cooked were tossed away; now they fetch a premium.
When building the most important thing is to have stable footings so that the foundation is fully supported.
Always put additional funds and supervision into ensuring that the footings are well constructed and go for over-kill.
Be on site when the footings are constructed regardless of what regulations say and always be there for the pooring of concrete as many so called contractors take short cuts.
If the site has been well surveyed, the soil analysis and profiling is good and there is no history of landslip then that's a good start.
If you need some other advise let me know as I've had a lot to do with contractors.
Here's a link to the office of fair trading:
Home building licence check - NSW Office of Fair Trading