Page 1506 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
enforcement of standards based on Australian Standard 3666 relating to the location, design, installation and maintenance of air-conditioning plants, cooling towers and water systems in buildings. Legionnaires' disease is a particularly serious health risk in the ACT due to the large proportion of our work force being based in buildings serviced by air-conditioning systems. The Bill is also timely, given recent worldwide media coverage of, and public concern over, the so-called "sick building syndrome".
Mr Speaker, let me now detail the new arrangements to be introduced by the Bill. As I have mentioned, the Bill requires compliance with the Australian standard for the design, location, installation, operation and maintenance of building air-conditioning plants and warm water systems. In terms of the procedures to be adopted for cleaning and maintaining this equipment, building owners or their agents will have to comply with the requirements of the building code of Australia and the ACT appendix to that code.
The Bill requires regular inspection and cleaning of such plant and equipment by the owners, or their agents, of buildings housing those installations. These owners or agents will also be required to prepare and keep maintenance reports following inspections and cleaning, for examination by building inspectors. Building inspectors are already provided for under the Building Act. These inspectors will now be authorised to inspect plants and equipment to ensure compliance, and will be empowered to enforce cleaning and decontamination if it is deemed necessary. Health inspectors will be similarly authorised under the Building Act for such duties.
The consequences of infection are so grave that the Bill will empower the building controller, following testing and on the advice of the medical officer of health, to shut down and evacuate affected buildings where there are reasonable grounds to do so due to the risk of legionnaires' disease. No appeal will be allowed against this order, again due to the potential tragedy that could result from such an outbreak.
Where a notice is served directing a person to carry out cleaning or other specified works within a time period, and the work is not carried out within the time allotted, then the building controller will be able to have the work completed and the cost recovered as a debt on the person on whom the notice was served. This is to ensure that essential works are completed as ordered by the building controller to reduce the risks of disease.
Mr Speaker, to ensure that these new requirements are met in a cost-effective way, the Bill will rely on self-certification. This means that building owners or their agents will produce and retain their own records for cleaning and maintenance. This also ensures that responsibility for this important function remains with the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .