Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1372 ..

Mr Corbell: Are you going to take credit for the mess that is out there at the moment, too?

MR SPEAKER: Order, please, Mr Corbell! You have asked your question and your supplementary question and the Minister is answering you.

MR SMYTH: What you cannot stand is that we are successful in getting things built for the ACT, in particular for the people of Gungahlin.

MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the Minister for Urban Services. A discussion paper was released in April on private certification in the ACT building industry. Minister, the paper examines the audit system that your government adopted to ensure adequate operation of private building certifiers and condemns your government's approach to audits, saying that auditors have been performing paper audits but lacking in the number of building audits. The purpose of these audits is to inspect building sites and to examine the certificates issued by the certifiers. Apparently, PALM has said that if the auditor made a visit to a site and a structural defect was observed but not corrected, the government would be liable. Minister, are you satisfied that the building work completed since the introduction of this legislation is structurally sound?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, we said when we introduced this legislation that we would review it. That is what we are doing now. That is the whole purpose of the discussion paper that is out there. If people have found difficult with this process, they should report it. I am quite happy to await the outcome of the discussion that we are having with the community. This government is one that does not jump to conclusions. We actually go out there and get the evidence. We are actually out there and are happy to talk to the community to find out how our legislation and the way that we run this territory work. I am happy to wait for that report, rather than jumping to the conclusions that those opposite always seem to do because they are not out there, they are not talking to the community.

MR HARGREAVES: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Minister, given the conclusion reached in the discussion paper on private certification, has your department or your office taken any steps to address the problem of a lack of building audits or are you more concerned about just protecting your government's back?

MR SMYTH: Again, Mr Speaker, the government made it quite clear when it introduced private certification that it was a new endeavour for the territory; that whenever we introduce legislation we like to look at its effect, and we are doing exactly as we promised. The discussion paper is out there. We are out consulting with the community and we will continue to do so. When we get the responses there we will work out whether there are flaws that need to be corrected and we will take action, if necessary.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .