Page 2655 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 1993
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HOUSING TRUST PROPERTIES - SMOKE DETECTORS
MR CORNWELL (12.02): Madam Speaker, I move:
That the Assembly instructs the Minister for Housing and Community Services to install smoke detectors in all new Housing Trust properties, effective immediately, and to progressively install such detectors in existing stock as part of its regular maintenance program.
Madam Speaker, on information that has been provided by the Minister for Housing and Community Services, I understand that in the last two years some 20 dwellings have been damaged by fire here in the ACT. I also understand from the annual reports of ACT Electricity and Water that in 1990-91 they attended 106 fires that may have been caused by electrical faults and in 1992-93 the figure was 101. So what we are looking at is a considerable number of fires here and the resultant damage. It is rather difficult to get an idea of costs involved in this; but one can, from media clips, get a rough estimation of damage. For example, there was a fire in a flat in Kingston in July this year which caused $45,000 worth of damage. Earlier this year, in February, there was a house fire in Garran which caused $80,000 worth of damage. In fact the house had to be demolished. By a very unfortunate coincidence, on Monday night there was a fire in Burnie Court. I say "unfortunate coincidence" because I had issued a media release announcing that I was moving this motion in the Assembly. That fire at Burnie Court also caused something like $45,000 worth of damage.
I have been concerned about this matter for some time and, frankly, the response that I have received from the department in relation to my request for the installation of smoke detectors in Housing Trust properties has been very disappointing. Firstly, in a reply to me on 2 June this year the Minister advised that smoke detectors are not required to be installed in dwellings under the Building Code of Australia, with which all buildings constructed for the Housing Trust must comply. Frankly, what sort of blinkered thinking is this? I would imagine that the Building Code of Australia should not be a maximum standard. It should, in fact, be a minimum, and therefore it can and should be improved upon. I would think that here in the ACT we could improve upon the Building Code of Australia in no better way, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, than the requirement for smoke detectors to be installed in all residential properties, given our cold winters and the obvious need for heating, with the consequential increase in the risk of fire. There are not only the usual hazards of children playing with matches, electrical shorts, stoves catching fire and the like. We also have a need for electric blankets, for solid fuel fires, for open fires, as well, of course, as radiators. Therefore, we must see the incidence and the risk of fires here increasing as a consequence.
If the 2 June reply to my question on notice was disappointing, the 20 July response, again from the Housing Trust, was even more so. Apart from admitting that 20 dwellings had been damaged in the past two years and that they could not give me any costs of the damage, they then advised that it would be too expensive to fit smoke detectors in Housing Trust properties.
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