1: Building permit & 2: Ceiling insulation

Hi All,
i had 2 questions,
1: I am building a new house, with land already titled and released. My loan has been approved and already received authorization to commence. I have the design approval from the estate lady (Plenty River) and the only thing remaining is the building permit. i had called up my builders to get an update if my details have been submitted for approval. Unfortunately they do not have any information as they have started work yesterday. Although while talking to the person, he mentioned that they do their building permits from a private surveyor. Correct me if i am wrong in thinking that building permits are supposed to be approved by the council.

2: I just recently learned about rebates related to ceiling insulation given by the vic govt for upto 1200$. now the person (my builders office) who i talked to apparently had no clue about this. I am still trying to contact insulationvictoria for more info, but anyone has done this while building a new house?

thanks in advance.
Cheers

The insulation rebate is only for houses older then 5 years, not new houses.

No, a private surveyor can do them as well. Ours were done that way, as was our certificate of occupancy, IIRC.

Sweeeeet, Thanks!