Page 1808 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 18 October 1989
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which would be happy to supervise a house. It would then depend on the age group.
If you have a group of 16-year-olds they would need full supervision all the time in the house. If you have a 16-year-old, a 29-year-old, a 30-year-old and a 60-year-old who is on a pension, you would not need anywhere near as much supervision. Probably the 60-year-old would be responsible for the 16-year-old.
So, at the moment, this is what we are looking at, but we will be taking very great care to see that nothing like what happened at Bowman House will happen again. That was not done by our Government, but unfortunately it was set in a place where it should never have been set, among many hotels, without any supervision, but now, leased to the Department of Education, it is working extremely well.
Building Safety
MS MAHER: My question is directed to the Minister for Housing and Urban Services. I refer to an article in the Canberra Times of Saturday, 14 October, concerning the safety of the Legal and General building in Barry Drive, Civic. Is the Minister aware of discussions being held between the Commonwealth and the building's owners? Is the Government involved in these discussions? Are there any ACT government employees working in the building? Can the Minister give an undertaking as to the safe working environment within the building? Is the Minister aware of any other buildings in Canberra about which questions have been raised as to their structural soundness, apart from the Silverton building in Civic?
MRS GRASSBY: Thank you, Ms Maher. Yes, I do know about that. The building controller was advised on 19 September that the floor was sagging. An assessment by the building controller shows the floor, as designed, is structurally safe. The sagging, however, may affect the tenants' use of the floor. I understand the Minister for tourism - I am not quite sure - was considering renting space in this building.
The building controller has been investigating the matter but at this stage does not propose any restrictions on the building. He will continue to monitor the situation. I asked questions about it. I understand that when a building is being built pillars are put under each floor, and they then build onto the next floor, where the same thing is done. Unfortunately, in a hurry, they sometimes take the pillars out and the floor then sags. But, because of the steel in the floor, I understand there is no danger to anybody. We have just heard, very sadly, about what happened in San Francisco. There is no reason, I understand from the building controller, for the building to fall down or anything terrible like that. So we do have
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