In the wake of June’s Grenfell tower disaster in London, which claimed the lives of around 80 people, ABC’s Four Corners has conducted an investigation into the widespread use of similar flammable cladding that has been knowingly used across Australia’s medium and high-rise apartment developments.
With the segment airing tonight, Four Corners has provided the following teaser:
More than a decade before the deadly Grenfell tower fire in London, Australian suppliers of aluminium composite cladding knew the product they were selling with a polyethylene (PE) core was highly flammable.
Despite more fire-resistant cladding being widely available in Europe and the USA, the cheaper PE core cladding continued to be installed on medium and high-rise buildings in Australia until 2013.
A Four Corners investigation has revealed that some international manufacturers and their Australian suppliers were aware of the risks associated with using PE cladding on high-rise buildings, but they continued to import it because Australia’s lax and ambiguous building standards allowed it.
Australia — in the grip of a once-in-a-generation building boom — now has a large legacy of buildings swathed in the potentially deadly material.
The number of affected properties is unknown but could be in the thousands, with a preliminary audit in NSW alone identifying 1,011 buildings that require investigation.
There could be thousands of home owners who are living in unsafe apartment buildings who face multimillion-dollar bills to fix their buildings…
Fire engineer Tony Enright says regulations have not kept up with the speed of development.
“Things have descended to the lowest common denominator,” he said.
“As soon as there’s an obstacle to a development, [the attitude is] ‘oh well, let’s fire engineer it away’.”
Most states have moved to a system of private certification where the building certifier is employed directly by the builder, rather than the council inspecting the building.
The ambiguous standards are combined with poor enforcement and, some say, a conflict of interest between safety and economy.
“We have, if you will, a builder, a certifier and a fire engineer who are incentivised to reduce cost,” Mr Enright said.
“The builder because it’s going straight on to their bottom line; the certifier because they want repeat work from the builder; the fire engineer because they want repeat work from the certifier and the builder.
“And so they’re all taking risks. It’s the building owners who bear those risks”…
Back in July, a Senate Inquiry was told that thousands of apartments in Sydney and Melbourne are potentially at risk from similar flammable cladding.
And last month, it was revealed that apartment owners in Sydney, rather than developers or builders, are likely to pick up the tab for remediation after the NSW Government reduced the warranty claim window to just two years from seven.
Here, folks, is yet another example of Australia’s dysfunctional ponzi economy in action. The federal government has chosen to flood Australia’s cities with additional people via immigration in an effort to juice the property industry. And in return, the property industry has built a fores of sub-standard, combustible high-rise dog boxes, passing the costs onto owners and the community while they make-out like bandits.
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Once-in-a-generation building boom? The building boom has been going on since Hitler died.
And Shorten wants AUS to have 100 million people – unlike Jacinda Ardern, Theresa May, Portugal, Japan.
“Most states have moved to a system of private certification where the building certifier is employed directly by the builder, rather than the council inspecting the building.”
Well done.
There is potential here for a real BOOM! Move the people out and put them in tents which we buy for them! Then burn the buildings down and rebuild them. Imagine the GROWTH! GDP to the moon!
Ain’t modern economics a wonderful thing?
In other words the US reconstruction model. Except they don’t burn the buildings down – too cheap – they use $10 Million cruise missiles to take them down 5 floors at a time.
And even better, manage the whole thing with trillion dollar imagery drones and satellites – all privatised for profit.
Hell yeah !
Hahaha perfect timing.
Just saw this line in this article and thought of MB while I chuckled:
“Mr. Zhao said he was motivated partly by patriotism. China has been pushing for years to develop technology products that catch fire overseas. ”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/world/asia/china-beijing-dockless-bike-share.html?mcubz=0
An easy way for China to set fire to Australia’s cities, no warship needed?
They’ll have to hurry, as my guess is it is only a matter of time until some ISIS idiots use Airbnb to find flammable buildings, rent them for the night and set the whole block ablaze.
Grenfell was owned, manufactured in the UK. Similar with the Australian products.
Its great how these fires are just being blamed on Chinese products – because you know, only Chinese would do this.
Even though it was westerners at every single step in the congo line. The only time the Chinese were involved is the suckers who bought them.
In other words – Australians have run a dodgey scam cladding high rises with petrol bombs and selling them to the Chinese.
And here we are – blaming the Chinese.
To be fair, the cladding is meant for use only in single storey buildings in the brochure. It is not the manufacturer’s fault when the developer opt to use the cheaper flammable cladding instead of the more expensive one that doesn’t burn.
Very good point that now our Government has set-up the fire towers for some terrorist to set fire too. When is Malcolm going to fix this and fix real estate being allowed to be used to launder money by criminals and perhaps terrorists? Morals and ethics seem to have gone.
Mmmm …. not sure Gustav. If they did that they’d end up cooking a good chunk of their own countrymen in the process.
Oh, and how long before the state gets sued?
A class action against the state’s outsourcing of its responsibilities, reductions in warranty and all the other dodgy shit is bound to bankrupt at least one state. Who’s got the worst balance sheet:shitty buildings ratio?
This.
I genuinely can not see any way around this. Its like outsourcing your military to your enemy then claiming its not your fault once you get invaded.
Its a clear breach of responsibility and basic negligence.
Will get sued into oblivion.
The whole idea behind private certification is to prevent the councils from being sued. (like the Auburn city council that approve all kind of ‘wonderful’ things that doesn’t comply the building code).
Exactly. The certifier and/or fire engineer is most likely to be open to litigation. That’s certainly the case in most private projects where ‘consultants’ are employed. I know of a couple of cases first hand where consultants face bankruptcy after being sued by developers. Not sure where professional indemnity insurance fits in here but my source (representing these parties in court) appears to think his clients are toast (no pun intended).
It seems barely a week goes by that 4 Corners does not do a expose on the third world kleptocracy that Australia has become. Though nothing ever happens. This will get swept under the rug also.
I don’t know why they bother. They should rather run programs giving tips on how to live under such a system by researching Latin America, The confederates States in America as well as some of the African nations.
Perhaps it is hard for 4 Corners to predict what will outrage the punters – but it now seems clear that dog abuse and live animal export abuse is the most outrageous thing to punters.
I of course think that animal abusers should be jailed.
But I also think that installers of illegal cladding should be jailed.
It is shocking that the LNP is still polling so well.
They’d get more public reaction if they showed dashcam videos of tail-gating on the freeway. Especially brown people tail-gating.
Australians don’t give a fuck about their country.
MB i reckon that a small number of patriotic Australians do give fucks about their country well above their weight, however they are vastly outnumbered by empty headed arseholes which in aggregate brings the per-capita fuck giving way down.
Ha! Now there’s a chart I’d like to see Kohler point to every night. Fucks given per capita!
Gold Jerry, Gold!
Australia is not alone with this vertical funeral pile building problem, reports coming out of Singapore indicate the same cladding. Over the last decade, Australian home owners have been subject to ‘mr fluffy ‘ and the legacy of asbestos related diseases which have yet to decline. Is the real cost of owning your own home, going to kill you?
well no one can say Oz RE is not hot.
It’s positively on fire!
Council, engineers, certifiers, suppliers all prosecuted and jailed. Developers company and personal assets confiscated to help pay for repairs. Council sued to pay for repairs. Jail the whole lot of them. Unbelievable just unbelievable.
And who will pay if the council is sued? The ratepayers will, you and me brother.
Privatise the profits, socialise the losses.
Sadly, you’re probably right.
good time to be a renter!
And regional town living dodges another bullet too. Yay! Looks like the big smoke is literally a poorly disposed gasper away.
The shit’s not even banned in the ACT! The ACT Goverment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Developer Inc. is merely “watching developments”.
Burn down the buildings and claim the insurance!
I’m absolutely gobsmacked that the government is too dumb to see the national security issue here. Firebugs and terrorist would be watching with interest.
Maybe it’s because the gubmints are behind the terrorists and their misdeeds for their own gains.
Think about that next time you hear the media banging on about a ‘swift response’.