Senate Report recommends Australian Federal Government implement a ‘total ban’ on the importation, sale, and use of polyethylene core aluminium composite cladding panels ‘as a matter of urgency’.
On 6 September 2017 the Senate Economics References Committee released its long awaited interim report following an extended inquiry on Non-Conforming Building Products - aluminium composite cladding. The inquiry was initially established in June 2015 as a review of the impact of non-conforming building products on the Australian building and construction industry. As part of a broader enquiry the Committee resolved on 13 October 2016 to inquire into the illegal products containing asbestos. The scope of the enquiry was expanded again as a result of the fire at the Grenfell Tower in London in June 2017 to include a review of the implications of the use of non-compliant external cladding materials in Australia. The inquiry was first established by the Senate following the 2014 Lacrosse apartment fire in Melbourne's Docklands. The Docklands fire started on an eighth floor balcony from a cigarette butt and travelled upward to all floors in the building to the roof. The Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board found that the use of Aluminium Composite Panels was a contributing factor to the rapid vertical spread of the fire The CSIRO tests found the cladding to be combustible and non-compliant with National Construction Code standards for use in buildings of three or more storeys. Samples of the imported cladding installed at the Lacrosse building tested by the CSIRO was found to be so combustible that the tests were abandoned after 93 seconds due to the potential for the equipment to be damaged. The Grenfell Tower fire this year involved the same type of cladding catching alight and engulfing the entire 24 storey residential building in flames. London police have confirmed that 80 people died as a result of the fire. The Inquiry made eight recommendations including: • the implementation of a total ban on the importation, sale and use of polyethylene core aluminium composite panels as a matter of urgency; • that the Commonwealth Government work with state and territory governments to establish a national licensing scheme, with requirements for continued professional development for all building practitioners; and • imposing a penalties regime for non-compliance with the National Construction Code such as revocation of accreditation or a ban from tendering for Commonwealth funded construction work and substantial financial penalties.