Page 3843 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 30 November 2021
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MADAM SPEAKER: In the minute or so—or half a minute—if you can come to that, Ms Vassarotti.
MS VASSAROTTI: Absolutely. This assessment looked at the areas of highest risk and we tried to identify everything. It is the case that some of that number are not expected to have cladding, and there may be some additional buildings that have the cladding. So the very short answer is yes, I am satisfied.
MRS JONES: Better late than never! Minister, if you know which buildings are affected, or at least likely affected, why have you not completed a full audit of those actual buildings, as the government has done for its own buildings?
MS VASSAROTTI: The buildings we are talking about are in private hands. They could potentially have combustible cladding, and what needs to happen is a detailed assessment of each building. In relation to the support being provided by government to those private owners, we have developed a scheme and as part of that we gone out and have contacted all the apartment owners. Significant information has been provided to strata managers as well as owner occupier organisations to support them to go through a process of assessment.
There has been a list of registered providers to support people going through that assessment, and there is a rebate scheme is provided to support up to 50 per cent of the assessment under the threshold of $20,000. If it identified that people do have cladding, we are in the process of developing a concessional loan scheme to support private owners to deal with the issue.
MR PARTON: What do you say to owners and owners’ corporations who are worried about self-reporting their combustible cladding due to concerns their insurance premiums will rise and their valuations will fall?
MS VASSAROTTI: I thank the member for the supplementary question. I would say to owners that it is really important to understand the safety risk of apartments. This issue has been identified for some time and it is important to work with strata managements and owner-occupier organisations to ensure safety risks are managed. This goes beyond cladding; there’s a whole range of issues that people need to ensure are being looked after.
I encourage people to engage with the scheme in terms of the information that can be provided to determine whether or not there is an issue. It is absolutely the case that assessments will identify whether there is potentially combustible cladding and how it can be managed in particular ways. I encourage people to engage with the scheme, particularly given we are providing support for people to manage the issue.
Sustainable Household Scheme—suppliers
MR HANSON: My question is to the Minister for Climate Action. Recent reports have revealed a large influx of operators from outside the ACT taking advantage of the Sustainable Household Scheme, with concerns raised in the community about
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