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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-15 Daily Xml
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Aluminium Composite Cladding

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:54): My question is the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Are there buildings in his audit that have the highest risk cladding on them but have sprinkler systems and fire security and evacuation procedures that have deemed them acceptable risk?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:54): Again, that is a question that seeks for me to give a simplistic answer to a difficult and complex set of circumstances. The in-built fire safety protection systems within a building are a key component of whether or not a building is safe regardless of what type of material is on that building. It's why we require in-built sprinkler systems in buildings of a certain class—compartmentalisation, firewalls, all sorts of in-built fire safety protections to make sure those buildings are safe. That very much comes into it.

Again, I think this speaks to a simplicity that somehow a building without cladding is safe but a building with cladding is unsafe. That sort of binary position does not stand up to scrutiny and does not reflect the complexity of the situation that we deal with. It's why the risk assessment tool is comprehensive. It looks at all the risk factors that are involved rather than this sort of binary choice. I would reiterate the fact that we are using an evidence-based process that has been backed up and independently verified and, again, is something that is being used consistently around the country.

We will get on and we will work together with councils and building owners to fix this issue. I think that what South Australians primarily want to know is: when is this problem going to be solved? We have a strong pathway to deliver that. In relation to extreme-risk buildings, we will get on with that straightaway and prioritise those first. The other thing that I want to assure South Australians of is that, as part of this risk assessment process, none of these buildings were identified as having a high enough risk rating for those buildings to be evacuated, i.e., that people shouldn't be living in these buildings according to the risk assessment tool, that—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —these buildings should not be occupied. Again, decisions of building owners, decisions of tenants are matters for those. We again—

Mr Brown: You don't even know.

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford can leave for the remainder of question time.

The honourable member for Playford having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We have undertaken a rigorous evidence-based process, one that I again must stress was well underway before I got here, and we have essentially followed that process because it is nationally consistent and what the experts in the field suggest to us is the best way for us to proceed.

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