Daniel Andrews calls for a partnership ‘beyond politics’ for $600m fund, but industry minister warns commonwealth ‘is not an ATM’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The federal Coalition has rejected a call from the Victorian Labor government for $300m to help rectify buildings with flammable cladding.

On Tuesday the Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announced a $600m fund to pay for rectification of 500 buildings identified by an audit, and called on the federal government for “a proper partnership … beyond politics” to co-fund the project.

Earlier, the federal industry minister Karen Andrews warned that the commonwealth “is not an ATM for the states”.

Karen Andrews told Radio National she would be “pressing the states and territories for a timeline” to complete audits of buildings with flammable cladding and would help coordinate the effort but did not intend to pay to fix the problem.

It could take two years to replace flammable cladding in Melbourne, says building authority Read more

Asked about co-funding, Andrews replied: “No, this problem is of the states’ making and they need to step up and fix the problem and dig into their own pockets.”

On Tuesday afternoon the federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg confirmed the commonwealth will not “pick up the bill for what is a state responsibility”.

“The safety of buildings is a state responsibility,” he said. “And the problem with cladding has come from a lack of compliance and enforcement at a state level.”

Daniel Andrews said the request for federal funding “is not about politics” but “simply a recognition that this is a national issue”.

“And there needs to be a true national partnership to put community safety first, to rectify these most dangerous buildings.”

Daniel Andrews has written to Scott Morrison with the request and will attempt to use a Council of Australian Governments meeting in August to agitate the issue.

He said other states “face similar challenges to us” and “have been waiting see what Victoria does”, suggesting Victoria will seek to enlist the other states in a push for a federal contribution.

Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne warned if the commonwealth “feel that they are unable to support us” then $300m will be funded by a levy on permits for buildings worth more than $800,000.

All low-rise buildings such as single dwellings and townhouses will be exempt, he said.

Victoria’s cladding taskforce, set up after London’s deadly Grenfell Tower inferno, has inspected more than 2,000 buildings across the state.



Daniel Andrews said community safety is at the heart of the cladding taskforce’s 35 recommendations released on Tuesday.

“When it comes to dealing with the cladding challenge, community safety has got to come first,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

Daniel Andrews cited the safety of owners, tenants, neighbours and first responders “who have been called to some cladding fires in our city, and could well be called to fast-moving nasty, potentially deadly cladding fires, if we didn’t take the action that we are announcing here”.

On Thursday Karen Andrews will convene a meeting of state and territory building industry and planning ministers to deal with “systemic problems” in the industry, including escalating insurance premiums.

The industry minister said that insurers had raised premiums due to “concerns about their liability” and they were within their rights to manage risks. “What I don’t think is excusable though is, for many years, insurers have taken the premiums, they’ve pocketed that and now when the risk profile changes, they’re in there protecting their own interests.”

Karen Andrews called on the states and territories to harmonise their building regulations, arguing that “nothing has prevented” them but “they have shown little to no interest in doing so”.

Karen Andrews said the federal government is prepared to fund a taskforce to achieve a “common outcome” and implement the recommendations of the report to eliminate flammable cladding, an offer she said had already rejected by some states.

“I’ll continue to put that on the table but what I’m not going to do is take over responsibility for an issue that has been created through noncompliance and a lack of enforcement in the building sector. That would be wrong.”