Page 3985 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 September 2017
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These materials are used in all sorts of applications, for example, signage, and some of the materials are made in Australia. There are a lot of other products that are also combustible that should not be put on the outside of multi-storey buildings, for example, timber. We are not going to ban all timber production or importation either. But what we are asking for is something that this government has already said last week it would do in responses to questions without notice. It said that all we had to do was ask for these reports.
We are asking what the government has done to address the fire safety risks associated with the use of aluminium cladding in all ACT government buildings since 2009; what it has done to address the fire safety risks associated with the use of aluminium cladding in all private, commercial and residential buildings since 2009; what issues have been raised by ACT officials since 2009-10 with the Australian Building Codes Board; why the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children was built with flammable aluminium cladding; why cladding is not being removed from the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children if it is safe.
I am also asking the government to provide to the Assembly, by the first week of the October sitting, all reports on the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children by ACT Fire & Rescue; the recommendations of the 2017 audit of all ACT government health buildings constructed that may have any part of aluminium cladding; a tabled the audit report of ACT government buildings; and the government’s plans to mitigate fire risks and related security issues associated with the existing aluminium cladding on all ACT government, private, commercial and residential buildings following the interim Senate economics references committee report on aluminium composite cladding. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Urban Renewal) (3.40): I thank Ms Lawder for this motion. I will not be supporting the motion, but I do agree that it is an important public safety issue so I want to move some amendments to the motion that will bring about similar actions. I move:
Omits paragraphs (1) and (2), substitute:
“(1) notes that:
(a) the safety of Canberrans, whether they are at work or at home, is always the utmost priority for the ACT Government. This is why we have a strong focus on both stringent building regulation and investing in our emergency services;
(b) the protection of building occupants from building fires is mainly regulated through building laws that rely on compliance with the National Construction Code (the NCC);
(c) the NCC does not ‘ban’ particular products. Whether a product with a degree of combustibility can be used depends on where it will be located and what it will be used for;
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