Page 3983 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 September 2017
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Why has it taken so long to conduct an audit of ACT government buildings? Why is it not possible to do it more quickly, given that the government is, itself, the holder of all of that building information? Why has it taken so long to undertake a risk assessment when, in the minister’s own words, “The government has actively monitored fire risks associated with aluminium cladding since around 2007.”
The government also said:
Since 2009 ACT Fire & Rescue has checked all plans for new ACT buildings, excluding houses, with a floor area greater than 500 square metres to help ensure … compliance …
How then have some buildings continued to use this cladding? On 12 July 2017 I sent an email to Minister Gentleman asking 23 questions. To date, I have not received a response to the questions in that email of 12 July on the membership of the working group, the terms of reference, the duration of the working group and whether the report will be made public.
In his statement on 17 August the minister said:
… the ACT government is committed to investigating the use of aluminium composite panels in Canberra …
Does that mean that they were not committed a decade ago when the issues first arose, or in 2009 or 2014 with the fires in Melbourne? Why are we suddenly committed to something we have known about for such a long time?It is not often I find myself agreeing with Unions ACT. In fact, I could probably list the number of times I agree with them on the fingers of one hand. They have called for an audit of cladding specifically on Canberra’s privately-owned buildings. They have also called for the creation of a pubic register of all buildings.
Again, I am unsure how it is possible that we cannot have this information already, given the building registers for everything you have to do: for development applications, for certificates of occupancy, for all of the inspections that must take place. There must already exist this type of information. Yet suddenly it is an urgent matter that the government has to undertake.
I go back to Minister Gentleman’s statement. He said:
Since 2009 ACT Fire & Rescue has checked all plans for new ACT buildings, excluding houses, with a floor area greater than 500 square metres to help ensure NCC compliance of wall claddings, amongst other fire safety requirements.
How then was the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children built using aluminium cladding of this type? What mitigations were put in place for high fire risks when the switchboard at the Canberra Hospital caught fire? This is building infrastructure that we already know is ageing. There has already been a fire at the hospital this year. Yet that cladding remains.
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