Page 3121 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Porter for the question. This is one of the biggest challenges we have seen and the ACT government has had to deal with since the bushfires in 2003. Measures have been taken to reduce the impact on both owners and tenants of Mr Fluffy homes and workers, all of whom are at risk of exposure to asbestos fibres.
Workers of the ACT have been protected through the development and provision of training through the asbestos awareness course. Along with this promotion of awareness training for workers, the Environment and Planning Directorate has also developed a system of mutual recognition of asbestos assessors who come into the ACT from interstate to work assessing houses which are suspected to have been contaminated with loose-fill asbestos.
The system allows workers who are qualified in asbestos assessment from other jurisdictions to apply to register themselves with the planning directorate and begin working relatively quickly. This licence must be judged as equivalent in order to ensure the safety of the public in the ACT.
The licensing team of EPD has an operational time frame for the assessment of mutual recognition application which is 10 working days. This takes into consideration checks with home jurisdictions about the individual’s compliance history, associated disciplinary actions or licence conditions or perhaps restrictions and notes the current circumstance to assist the asbestos task force. An operational time frame for assessment of five working days for new licence applications relating to asbestos assessment and asbestos removal has been implemented by the licensing team of EPD.
A system of mutual recognition has achieved the outcome of having assessment of suspected Mr Fluffy homes done as quickly as possible, without delay.
ACTION bus service—network
MR COE: My question, to the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, is regarding ACTION network 14. Minister, you said on 9 September that an extra bus would be added to route 725, which would leave Cooleman Court at 7.46 am, and that this bus was accidentally left off the original network 14 timetable. Minister, given members of the Weston Creek community have been raising concerns about the new network since its release, why did it take the government three weeks to rectify this accident?
MR RATTENBURY: What was made clear is that the announcement of that additional service was made well before 15 September, but the practicalities of simply reorganising the bus schedule and getting the shifts right around that meant that it could not be introduced until 15 September. That is the reason for the timing of the reintroduction of that service.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Coe.
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