Page 1910 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 May 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
result from an outbreak. All sections of the community are vulnerable, although the figures do suggest that older male smokers have a higher mortality rate than other groups. I think that for this Territory to have no measure in place to prevent such an outbreak is totally unacceptable to the community, and I am sure to the Alliance Government. We have to take action to remedy this lack of protection for our community, and I am sure that our colleagues in the Opposition are as concerned about this as the Alliance Government is.
The legislation provides for the adoption and enforcement of standards based on Australian Standard 3666 - as Mrs Grassby indicated - relating to the location, design, installation and maintenance of air-conditioning plants, cooling towers and warm water systems in the ACT. What is more, the legislation will require a system of licensing for such equipment. Before a system licence is introduced, the regulatory authority, ACT Building Control, must be satisfied that the system will be operated in accordance with the standard. Even after the licence is issued, failure to operate the system in accordance with that standard will result in the suspension of the licence as well as significant penalties. The legislation has provision for the Minister to amend the application of the standard in the Territory through the ACT appendix of the building code of Australia. This will allow fine tuning of the standard's requirements to match the needs of the Territory as they evolve. It is appropriate that such amendments be achieved through instruments which will be disallowable by the Assembly. I am sure that Mr Connolly will be pleased to hear that.
The regulatory authority, ACT Building Control, has actively encouraged voluntary compliance with Australian Standard 3666 among building owners in the ACT. I suspect that there has been a reasonably high degree of compliance with that; but to date the standard has not been legally enforceable, and that, of course, is the point of this legislation. That makes the point, I think, that the ACT has not been without some protection in the interim between now and when this problem was first identified. There has been some level of compliance by building owners in the ACT, and I think the Government should acknowledge gratefully that that has occurred. This legislation is about making Australian Standard 3666 enforceable however, and about preventing conditions arising which could result in an outbreak of legionnaires' disease in this city.
This legislation is consistent with similar measures proposed in New South Wales and South Australia, for example. While, to date, the Wollongong City Council is the only jurisdiction in New South Wales to have enacted regulations to enforce compliance with the standard, the New South Wales State Government is on the verge of introducing legislation to control legionnaires' disease, and I think we all warmly welcome that. Mr Speaker, I believe that this Bill is an important initiative for our
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .