Shorten calls for fire safety

FIRE safety standards in Australia must be overhauled in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says.

The Labor leader has called on the federal, state and territory governments to work together to implement tougher, nationally consistent fire safety standards as the UK reels from the horror apartment building fire.

“The nation is on notice – those 80 tragic souls who passed away in Grenfell are our wake-up call,” Mr Shorten said yesterday.

“Australia is not immune from what happened in England. We have a patchwork of different systems across Australia.

“We have too many unlicensed and unqualified people ticking boxes and trying to pretend we have a safe system ... I just wonder when our luck runs out.”

Labor MPs have been speaking to unions and industry workers about the issues of imported building materials, qualifications and the use of “unlicensed and untrained people”, and the lack of consistent audit and inspection services.

Mr Shorten said the call was not “unduly alarmist” as industry workers had told how it was not a matter of if, but when Australia would have a disaster.

Labor would work with the Turnbull government on reforming standards, but Mr Shorten warned if the government did not act quickly he would make it an issue.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has written to premiers asking them to outline the extent of combustible cladding in their states and actions to ensure compliance with the code.

— Claire Bickers