Page 2509 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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It was less than two years ago that the government announced the loose-fill asbestos insulation eradication scheme to deal with the health, social, financial and practical consequences of the continuing contamination of 1,022 Canberra houses with asbestos insulation. It was in late June 2014 that the government established the task force to deliver emergency assistance in response to the crisis then gripping our city and to advise on an enduring solution to this pre-self-government legacy issue.
Since then the task force has worked tirelessly with affected home owners, with neighbours, with industry bodies and industrial organisations, with community service providers and community groups, with recognised experts and regulators in work health and safety and asbestos-related disease, with commercial entities, and with counterparts in the commonwealth and New South Wales to design and implement a program of unprecedented scale, cost and complexity in the territory‘s history.
In that context, the government was particularly pleased to receive the recent performance audit report from the Auditor-General that found that found the task force governance and financial and risk management frameworks were both effective and represent better practice. I note that the Auditor-General will shortly commence the second of her performance audits of the task force work, this time focusing on scheme implementation and delivery.
As of 4 August this year, the owners of 998 affected houses, including 12 assisted private demolitions and five Housing ACT properties, have agreed to participate in the scheme. The owners of 11 impacted properties have agreed to participate in the scheme. A total of 888 affected houses and six impacted houses have been acquired by the government; 291 affected properties have been demolished, 276 by the task force, 11 through the assisted private demolition; and four privately; and 187 properties have been removed from the affected residential premises register and are ready for reoccupation and rebuilding.
This deregistration process is scientifically based and evidence driven but sensibly allows retention of desirable landscaping and other improvements that are not subject to asbestos contamination. In the period between the commencement of the sale process for remediated blocks in April 2016 and 1 August, 183 first right of refusal offers have been sent, 59 blocks have been offered for public sale, contracts have been exchanged on 44 remediated blocks—three first right of refusal and 41 public sales—and sales processes have been completed on 21 blocks, which are two first right of refusal and 19 public sales.
As the demolition program unfolds, the task force will continue to make first right of refusal offers to former owners in accordance with the policy it published in September 2015. As set out in that policy, once the LDA has set the sale price, the first right holder will receive a letter from the task force offering to sell them their remediated block. The first right holder will then be required to notify the task force within 30 working days whether they would like to purchase the remediated block.
If the former owner accepts the resale offer, they have another 60 working days from receipt of the contract to reach exchange. I point out, given there has been some
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