Govt watering down accessibility of state building code

The Baillieu government in Victoria has been accused of watering down new building regulations designed to make public and commercial buildings more accessible to the disabled and those with limited mobility.

Disability support groups and the state opposition have told Jason Dowling at The Age that a bill before State Parliament broadens the scope for builders to avoid new national building standards designed to improve such elements as doors, lifts, corridors and toilets.

The changes in the Victorian bill are considered so significant, the Baillieu government-dominated Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee will write to the minister questioning the wording of the bill.

“The committee is concerned that the definition in the new section 160B(7) may provide less protection to disabled people than the definition in the national premises standards,” the committee found.

Federal parliamentary secretary for disabilities and carers, Senator Jan McLucas also raised concerns.

“It is unacceptable the Victorian government has sought to back away from the nationally agreed commitment to improve accessibility to buildings for people with disability,” she said.

Both the Federal and state bills allow exemptions or modifications from the new standards on the basis of unjustifiable hardship. But the state bill provides many more reasons a builder may argue on hardship grounds and removes a reference to the Disability Discrimination Act.

Opposition planning spokesman, Brian Tee, slammed the bill as ”a back-door way” to avoid the national standards.

But Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, defended the bill, saying it met 2008 frameworks agreed on by the Coalition of Australian Governments and which were being implemented nationwide: “This bill was drafted under the previous government and the disability access provisions of it are supported by the Baillieu government”.

Cath Smith, chief executive of the Victorian Council of Social Service, said it would upset thousands of people with disabilities if the Victorian legislation watered down the intent of the national standards.

But Brian Welch, of the Master Builders Association of Victoria, said the new standards would be costly for builders.