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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) (15:07): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. How many buildings whose core samples of aluminium cladding were taken were found to have black core cladding?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (15:07): Again, as I have reiterated in my previous answers, this issue is not as simple as, 'Just test the cladding and everything is safe.' The difficulty with this issue is the way that substitution has occurred. By and large, around the nation, the issue that we are grappling with is that that substitution is happening likely—mostly, if not all—from imported product.

As we understand it, there is substitution sometimes not just of a whole batch—you ask for the good stuff and you get sent this dodgy stuff—but that even within batches of ACP there are components of good and bad cladding. So, for the purposes of what we are seeking to do here, it is not a case where you can just test a panel and everything will be okay. For the purposes of what we have done, we have just assumed that everything is a—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: this is debate.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for debate.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I asked a very specific question, sir: how many buildings which had their core samples taken were found to have black core cladding?

The SPEAKER: Yes, I have the point of order. I believe that question may elucidate several facets. I am giving the minister an opportunity to answer, but if he crosses the line I will pull him back into line. Minister.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Again, I think that what is being attempted here is for us to be funnelled into a very narrow, binary discussion when this issue is far too complex for that. Potentially, minds with the broader ability to be able to look at the complexity of these situations are needed in this regard. To that end, it is not as simple as saying, 'Just rip off one panel, test it, and if it comes back clean everything is good.' That is just not the way that we deal with this.

So, for the purposes of the assessments that have been undertaken, we assume the worst. We assume that everything has an issue, and what that does is make sure that, as we head through this rectification process, we are assuming the worst level of circumstance. When we look at those rectification measures, whether we look at increases to in-built fire safety systems or a whole host of ways that we can remediate these buildings, by making the worst level of assumption, or making essentially a level of assumption that is based on the worst-case scenario, we can assure South Australians that we are taking the most risk-averse approach to dealing with this very wicked and difficult issue.

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