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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-28 Daily Xml
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BUSHFIRE BUNKERS

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about bushfire bunkers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On 21 October, the minister issued a statement on bushfire bunkers, expressing the government's concern that consumers are being misled by some traders claiming that their bunkers meet an Australian standard for the product despite there being no standard in place. The government has urged consumers to approach the issue with caution. My questions are:

1. When the minister said that there is a lack of a 'formal Australian standard' was she referring to standards issued by Standards Australia?

2. When is it expected that the national standard being prepared by the Australian Building Codes Board will be promulgated?

3. Will the national standard being prepared by the Australian Building Codes Board be a formal Australian standard under Standards Australia?

4. Given that the cautionary note issued by the minister advises landholders that, if technical advice is required, they should consult with suitably qualified building professionals, what technical advice are these professionals expected to rely on while national standards are being developed?

5. Is the government recommending against the construction of bushfire bunkers, at least until standards are settled, but is not willing to be that clear with the public?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:32): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Since the very tragic bushfires in Victoria, which brought about so many fatalities last year, we are even more conscious of the potential dangers around bushfires. No doubt because of the public's response to those events, we have seen a great deal more consumer interest in purchasing fire bunkers.

We know that, during the Victorian fires, there were survivor stories involving bushfire bunkers, but we also know that seven people died in bushfire bunkers during those Victorian fires. So, we need to approach the issue of bushfire bunkers with great caution, and that is why I recently issued a media release and also a cautionary note, which was published at the time.

My media release was in response to some web-based sites that were identified as advertising fire bunker products as meeting Australian standards and, of course, currently there are no Australian standards for fire bunkers. So, the advertising was, in fact, misleading, and that is how my office became involved in the issue in the first instance. Those traders were required to remove that advertising from the internet immediately.

In the media release it states that, while the Australian Building Codes Board is currently working on a national standard for the design and construction of bushfire bunkers for domestic use, there is currently no recognised standard for them. So, what we are saying to people is that currently in the marketplace there are no fire bunker products that are deemed to have met any Australian standard, because there is no standard.

I have prepared and distributed a comprehensive cautionary note—it is on the net, so I advise the honourable member to have a look at it—that outlines a whole range of quite complex issues that need to be considered if a person wishes to purchase or construct a fire bunker. This government is saying that, if a fire bunker is to be safe, it needs to meet those sorts of conditions and would need to be constructed by people with the appropriate skills and expertise. That would include an engineer and perhaps a surveyor, and it would also involve the local council. So the cautionary note lists, fairly comprehensively, the issues that would need to be satisfied for a bunker to be safe.

The government is not saying that there is no such thing as a safe fire bunker; it is saying that currently there is nothing in the marketplace that meets Australian standards, because no standards currently exist. The standards are being dealt with now but, in terms of whether or not they will be dealt with under Standards Australia, I will have to take that part of the question on notice and bring back a response.

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