Page 1611 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 June 2022
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desktop analysis to identify privately owned buildings that might be affected. It also undertook a kerbside identification of buildings with cladding material, carried out by ACT Fire & Rescue in the most likely suburbs of Canberra—around town centres, transit corridors and areas of apartment development.
The outcome of this kerbside identification process was around 90 apartment buildings of three storeys or higher, potentially with combustible cladding. Inquiries into these 90 buildings indicate that some of the 90 buildings do not have combustible cladding, while others have already completed remediation works. Of those buildings, approximately 53 owners corporations are eligible for assistance under the Private Buildings Cladding Scheme. Twelve owners corporations have also applied for the scheme who were not previously identified as part of the kerbside process.
A number of outreach activities have been undertaken to contact the maximum number of owners corporations who may be affected. This has included undertaking presentations on the scheme to owners corporations who are members of the Owners Corporation Network, contacting all of the strata agencies in the ACT, talking them through the scheme and obtaining their assistance to identify buildings they manage which may be eligible for the scheme, and sending letters to owners of class 2 buildings that may have cladding.
Given the size of our city, the nature of the products and the very proactive approach taken by Major Projects Canberra, we can be confident that there is a strong understanding of the buildings potentially impacted, and early calls for an audit have essentially been responded to. Testing and assessment mean that building owners will have a much more specific understanding of potential risks and clear advice on how to deal with specific issues. While the calls for an audit may have had some merit in mid-2019, the subsequent work that has occurred since this time, which has seen the identification support for assessment work to occur, has rendered this call essentially completed.
The ACT government is working to see that all buildings with a high and moderate risk due to combustible cladding are rectified. As noted in relation to ACT government-owned buildings, this will be achieved by the end of 2022. In relation to privately owned apartment buildings, the ACT government has been working to support private owners to assess and manage this risk. Across Australia, outside our biggest states, whose significantly higher risk profile can be immediately seen when we survey the skylines of our two largest cities, the ACT is the only jurisdiction that has provided any support to private building owners. This is in recognition that, while this is a responsibility of private owners, it is a challenging process that can be difficult to navigate.
The ACT government has aimed to take a balanced approach of adopting a voluntary scheme that aims to support private building owners to assess and manage their risk. Since immediately after this government was elected, we have been working to produce a two-phase scheme to assist building owners. Phase 1 of the scheme was developed and funded through the government’s 2020-21 budget and provides a 50 per cent rebate for testing and assessment of potentially combustible cladding. So far, the government has assisted 25 owners corporations with the testing and
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