Photograph: SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE
Centre Alliance will reintroduce a bill to ban the importation of flammable cladding, a move likely to force the issue back into the federal arena despite the Morrison government putting responsibility on the states.
Former party leader Nick Xenophon had introduced a Senate bill to ban the importation of the building product in the 45th parliament – when it was opposed by Coalition senators – but it lapsed at the election.
Rex Patrick said he will reintroduce the bill in the next sitting week, a move seized on by Labor’s Brendan O’Connor, who accused the government of “failing to take responsibility” for building products “putting the public at risk”.
Together Centre Alliance, Labor, which is yet to declare its final position, and the Greens, which support a ban, could pass a Senate bill with One Nation support.
The federal government has taken a role coordinating consistency among state building codes but warned that enforcement – and the cost of rectification of flammable cladding already used in construction – is a matter for states.
Patrick said that because flammable cladding is allowed on single-storey buildings “mistakes can be made by architects, or builders who want to cut corners”, meaning it can be improperly used on multi-storey buildings and create a risk to the community.
“We need to ban flammable cladding so that it can’t get into the country,” he said.
At a Senate inquiry in 2015 Adam Dalrymple, the fire safety director of Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade, gave evidence about the Lacrosse fire, in which flammable cladding “allowed the fire to travel the full extent of the building – 23 levels in 11 minutes”.
He warned of the possible “disastrous loss of life” in Australia from flammable cladding fires, as occurred in the Grenfell disaster.
O’Connor, Labor’s small business spokesman, said the federal government “cannot continue to shift responsibility to the states and territories and must come clean about whether or not they will ban the importation of flammable cladding”.
“Each day the Morrison government fails to take leadership and respond to the building industry crisis, businesses are closing down, the safety and lives of Australians are put at risk,” he said.
In February 2018 when the bill was debated, Coalition senators including Ian Macdonald, Jane Hume and Jonathon Duniam rejected the import ban, arguing that aluminium composite panels are a “safe and legitimate building product in Australia if they are used appropriately”.
Hume said a ban was a “significant overreaction” that would “destroy thousands of small businesses, particularly those in the signage industry” and would likely be in breach of World Trade Organisation rules and free trade agreements.
A spokesman for industry minister Karen Andrews told Guardian Australia that a ban on aluminium composite cladding was rejected at the building ministers’ forum in February because states agreed “that banning a legitimate product at the border is neither effective nor practical”.
“An import ban would have unintended consequences for Australian businesses that use these panels for legitimate and safe purposes, such as signage, wrapping ATMs and road barriers.”
Patrick said Centre Alliance was determined to “put safety before those other issues”.
Patrick said he is still considering bolstering the bill to ban the importation of all cladding, to deal with the problem of “fraudulent” or incorrectly classified cladding from countries such as China.
A total ban would “have some enforcement benefits” by making it easier for customs to block all non-conforming building products, he said, although he is still conducting “due diligence” on a total ban.
Victoria has created a $600m fund to pay for rectification of 500 buildings identified by an audit, half-funded by a levy on developers after the federal government refused to make a contribution.
