Flammable cladding found on government buildings

FLAMMABLE cladding has been found on Commonwealth buildings, including at five military bases, but the Federal Government has declined to say where, fearing they could come under arson attack.

Leaked documents have revealed at least 11 taxpayerowned government buildings are wrapped in cladding, posing a fire and public safety risk.

This is despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Industry Minister Karen Andrews shifting questioning on the matter to the states.

But during questioning in

Senate Estimates yesterday, the Defence Department revealed officials had quietly done an audit of their buildings after the Grenfell Tower disaster in London in 2017, where cladding escalated a fire, killing 72 people and injuring 70.

Despite the government declining to reveal where the buildings were, citing the potential for an arson attack, the buildings on the five defence bases were named by defence officials — Fisherman’s Bend in Melbourne, HMAS Penguin in Sydney, HMAS Cairns, RAAF Townsville, and RAAF Edinburgh in South Australia.

Labor Senator Penny Wong pursued Defence officials as to why the information was kept secret, to which she was told “we have not sought to telegraph publicly”. She was assured work had begun on the five and would be completed by the end of this year.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds had to acknowledge she had not been briefed about the department’s cladding audit, which identified 208 properties that were potentially non-compliant. Five were found to be non-compliant and needing work. These were buildings owned by the department, but there could be leased buildings too. Remedial work included running more fire escape drills and putting in awnings to protect from falling flammable debris.

Labor industry spokesman Brendan O’Connor said the public had a right to know about all Commonwealth buildings.