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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 4399 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Dear Mr Ronaldson,

I am writing to seek urgent additional funding to address major fire safety concerns at ACT Housing's multi-unit complexes. Many of the large complexes do not meet current standards under the Building Code of Australia (BCA), particularly in relation to fire safety, with some of the complexes at the end of their economic lives.

During recent negotiations for the up coming 2002-03 ACT Budget this portfolio sought $2 million per annum for minimum fire safety requirements ... In so doing, it was recognised that the problem needed to be addressed partly by moving people out of the complexes, as a result of redevelopment or demolition, and partly by rectification.

In response to our request for additional funding, Treasury requested that Urban Services seek urgent legal advice on the Territory's potential liability in the event of a fire or similar accident. Advice from the Government Solicitor's Office has now been received ...

The Government Solicitor's advice clearly indicates that the Territory could be held liable in negligence in the event of an accident. The Territory has been put on notice through specific audit reports ...

Specific audit reports, I have to say, that were made available to your government. I will read this paragraph again:

The Government Solicitor's advice clearly indicates that the Territory could be held liable in negligence in the event of an accident. The Territory has been put on notice through specific audit reports that the multi-unit sites do not comply with current BCA standards. Accordingly, it must take immediate steps to address the identified problems and implement a management plan identifying how the Territory will address or minimise this potential liability.

In order to avoid any misunderstanding around this issue, let me make it perfectly clear that the audit reports that brought this matter to the urgent attention of government were audit reports prepared under the previous government and provided to the previous government.

Mr Smyth: So you knew about it before 30 May then?

MR STANHOPE: We didn't. No, I didn't. You all knew before your last budget.

Mr Wood: That legal opinion was in May.

MR STANHOPE: This legal opinion was May 2002. The question was when did I become aware. This is the sequence by which I became aware. I became aware after being advised that an audit had been undertaken under the previous government, under the Liberal government, which highlighted the need for urgent attention to fire safety issues in multiunit complexes.

There is another significant issue here, of course, about why the previous government simply ignored that urgent advice; why the previous government did nothing about that urgent advice; why the previous government was prepared, content, to sit and see this

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