AUTHORITIES have no idea how many buildings in Australia have been fitted with dangerous non-compliant materials, and timing on a nationwide audit is unclear.

A national investigation commissioned by the Prime Minister in response to last months’ devastating Grenfell Tower blaze in London is under way, but the process has been described as “messy”.

The complex audit will culminate in a report combining independent state government investigations, which are each at different stages or yet to commence.

Victoria, where a fire involving aluminium panels spread quickly through a residential building in 2014, has announced it’s fast-tracking its audit, and the NSW government has said it will make an announcement next week.

Minister for Industry Craig Laundy has been appointed by the Turnbull Government to head up the Building Minister’s Forum which met on Friday to discuss a national strategic response to risks from the non-compliant installation of building products.

In an ABC radio interview on Tuesday morning he described his role at the forum as meeting with state ministers and “checking where (audits) were up to”.

“To credit the building ministers and the premiers and chief ministers of the states, the process had already by that time been commenced,” he said.

Mr Laundy said some councils had begun their own audits, and each of the states was working at its own pace.

“It’s obviously being taken as seriously as it should be and everyone is now, is moving in that direction,” he said.

Mr Laundy’s Interviewer and AM host Sabra Lane said the national strategy “sounds messy”, and challenged the minister over whether this was the “national audit” the Commonwealth wanted.

He responded: “No, that’s how our system actually works.”

“The Federal Government has been in charge of the National Construction Code through the independent Australian Building Construction Board since 1994,” Mr Laundy said.

“We administer the running of that code, however the enforcement and implementation of it is done at state level.

“So that’s actually how the system has always operated, due to our federal system of government and state system of government.”

The forum next meets in October by which time an independent expert should report on his examination of compliance and enforcement issues, but Mr Laundy was unable to say when the national audit would be complete.

Earlier reports have indicated as many as 2500 building in NSW have highly flammable cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower.

Indicating that another Grenfell could not happen here, Mr Laundy pointed out the differences between the regulatory regimes in Australia, and the one the 27-storey tower was subjected to.

“You look at (Melbourne building) Lacrosse, you had the cladding that went up, you then had the early warning. You had the sprinklers come on, you have two fire-smoke isolated exits per level,” he said.

“You had a system designed there to get 3090 people out of that building, and it so happened that on that night 600 got out.

“So you’re talking about a very different regulatory regime between our National Construction Code and what was in place for Grenfell.”

In a statement on Monday, Mr Laundy was more definitive: “Put simply, a Grenfell apartment block would not comply with Australia’s National Construction Code.”