Mr WOOD - 2011-12-01
I was pleased to hand over a certificate of occupancy for the BER building at Howard Springs Primary School this morning. I might have been the last man standing, I am not sure.
Your department recently released Building Amendment (Rural Relocation) Regulations 2011. In it, under section 9A, it mentions relocation of approved Class 1a Buildings to approved rural land. Could you explain what this means? Could you explain what it means by ‘approved rural land’, and could you explain why, if it is good enough to relocate a class 1a building to rural land, why is it not good enough to relocate it to the suburb of Johnston?
ANSWER
Madam Acting Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. The question relates to our government’s ambition to provide housing options and housing affordability. Members may recall that, in June 2010, Defence Housing Australia put out a tender to demolish 61 elevated houses at the Larrakeyah Naval Base. Defence Housing Australia reached an agreement with the contractor so that the houses could be removed from the barracks and be sold. That was an agreement between those two parties.
At that time, in terms of regulations, the buildings being relocated needed to be upgraded to the current building standards. The contractor approached government with a proposal to amend the requirement to upgrade the buildings if they were being relocated into a rural area. That was the plan.
This approach was carefully assessed. Consequently, in light of the government’s commitment to provide affordable housing options, the Building Regulations were amended to relocate these houses onto blocks zoned Rural Living, Rural Agriculture, or Horticulture, as the member said.
It is important to note that the houses still need to meet a range of conditions, including:
the house either has an occupancy permit, or the house was built by or for the Commonwealth Crown;
the house was built after Cyclone Tracy;
the house was built on a site that has an equal or greater design wind speed than the site it is to be relocated to; and
the house was built on land in the Territory where building regulation applied at the time of construction.
So these changes to regulations mean the houses are providing an affordable option. They are required to maintain the standard that applied at the time the building was initially constructed.
In relation to the last part of the question, there have been many changes in styles and expectations over 30 years. People who are buying into our record land release programs and constructing new homes - and in Palmerston East it is a delight to see that activity - have an expectation that someone who builds close to them would build in a similar manner with similar materials and similar amenity. Residents in these subdivisions have that right of expectation. The government and I thought the rural area definitely has the opportunity of providing ...
Mr Wood: Berrimah Farm?
Mr McCARTHY: That is not on the pad yet ...
Madam ACTING SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Your department recently released Building Amendment (Rural Relocation) Regulations 2011. In it, under section 9A, it mentions relocation of approved Class 1a Buildings to approved rural land. Could you explain what this means? Could you explain what it means by ‘approved rural land’, and could you explain why, if it is good enough to relocate a class 1a building to rural land, why is it not good enough to relocate it to the suburb of Johnston?
ANSWER
Madam Acting Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. The question relates to our government’s ambition to provide housing options and housing affordability. Members may recall that, in June 2010, Defence Housing Australia put out a tender to demolish 61 elevated houses at the Larrakeyah Naval Base. Defence Housing Australia reached an agreement with the contractor so that the houses could be removed from the barracks and be sold. That was an agreement between those two parties.
At that time, in terms of regulations, the buildings being relocated needed to be upgraded to the current building standards. The contractor approached government with a proposal to amend the requirement to upgrade the buildings if they were being relocated into a rural area. That was the plan.
This approach was carefully assessed. Consequently, in light of the government’s commitment to provide affordable housing options, the Building Regulations were amended to relocate these houses onto blocks zoned Rural Living, Rural Agriculture, or Horticulture, as the member said.
It is important to note that the houses still need to meet a range of conditions, including:
the house either has an occupancy permit, or the house was built by or for the Commonwealth Crown;
the house was built after Cyclone Tracy;
the house was built on a site that has an equal or greater design wind speed than the site it is to be relocated to; and
the house was built on land in the Territory where building regulation applied at the time of construction.
So these changes to regulations mean the houses are providing an affordable option. They are required to maintain the standard that applied at the time the building was initially constructed.
In relation to the last part of the question, there have been many changes in styles and expectations over 30 years. People who are buying into our record land release programs and constructing new homes - and in Palmerston East it is a delight to see that activity - have an expectation that someone who builds close to them would build in a similar manner with similar materials and similar amenity. Residents in these subdivisions have that right of expectation. The government and I thought the rural area definitely has the opportunity of providing ...
Mr Wood: Berrimah Farm?
Mr McCARTHY: That is not on the pad yet ...
Madam ACTING SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016