Building Upgrade Finance

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:40): What level of disability access will be provided in these buildings? Will it be existing Australian standards or universal design or something else?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for her supplementary question. I am not prescribing the sorts of standards that will be applied. It will be largely up to the building owner in terms of the standards they apply, whether they are the Australian standards, or whether they aspire to something even better.

The whole idea of BUF, I suppose, is to reach further than what everybody else is doing, to offer, by utilising this financing mechanism, something that is not available elsewhere in the city so as to attract more tenants. My understanding would be, all costs being equal, that the investment will be in areas that would actually make their buildings stand out, and if that means going that extra yard in terms of disability access, that is something they would consider.