Page 3578 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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recovering materials for re-use and recycling, after both the initial construction and the demolition of buildings.
I can advise the Assembly that when the provisions for sustainability guidelines were included in the Building Act 2004, it was because, in the absence of federal laws at the time to adequately protect rainforest from logging, the ACT government of the day was seeking to be able to address the use of rainforest timbers, should this become an issue. Subsequently, the commonwealth government established the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act, which prohibits both the import and the processing of illegally logged timber and timber products.
Under that act, people importing timber and timber products into Australia, and processors of domestically produced logs, are required to carry out due diligence to minimise the risk of illegally logged timber being present in supply chains. If a builder is importing materials directly, they need to make a customs declaration about their compliance with those due diligence requirements. This law effectively addressed the ACT government’s concerns at the time, so sustainability guidelines under our own Building Act, as they were imagined then, were not pursued.
In 2004 there was very little focus on sustainability in the National Construction Code. Now, however, it is a core goal of the code. As the Minister for Building Quality Improvement, I will continue to champion the importance of a modern, useful and high standard national construction code. My directorate is looking at the issue of the sustainable use of building products and how we can tie together all of the various work that is giving effect to this. It will continue to monitor practices in the industry and look to create a guideline in due course.
Our primary focus, however, is on ensuring that the residents of the ACT have the highest quality buildings in Australia. This will be the government’s primary focus in the Building Act. I do not make any apologies for that. I will be working to ensure that we have these built well and built in a sustainable way. Having them built well is my area of greatest effort and resolve at this time.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (4.28): I rise to speak to both the amendment and the original motion as amended. I am very pleased to hear Ms Cody’s motion being brought into the Assembly today. As a carpenter in a previous life, I am very well aware of the benefits associated with using Australian forestry products in the construction industry and the renewable value that timber provides.
The Canberra Liberals acknowledge that planting trees is an effective way of improving environmental outcomes in terms of cost, ease and causing the least amount of disruption to Canberrans’ way of life. We also acknowledge that wood from trees plays a significant role in construction. The use of timber has become a fashionable and premium option, especially as cities around the world are trying to construct buildings that are seen to be more sustainable.
However, let us not think for a moment that the use of timber in construction is a new concept. It has long been a staple of the building and construction industries. It is a
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