Premier warns of 'deadly outcomes' in cladding crisis blame game - The Age

Safety concerns over flammable cladding and poor building standards have plagued Victoria’s domestic construction sector since 2014, when flames raced up the external wall cladding at the Lacrosse building in Docklands after a burning cigarette was left unattended.

The cladding on the Lacrosse building caught fire in 2014.Credit:Wayne Taylor

The Andrews government has committed $600 million to remove the combustible material used on hundreds of high-risk buildings.

Mr Andrews said the federal government must also play its role, particularly in relation to importation, customs, labelling and product safety issues.

“All of those matters are not handled at a state level, they are handled at a national level, so we will continue what have been pretty positive discussions with the Commonwealth government on those very issues,” he said.

The Premier said the federal government must also take steps to make it harder for “phoenixing companies” to disappear as soon as a building was complete.

“The company doesn’t exist anymore so there is nobody to go after to deal with the cost of the shoddy work and the deadly work that they’ve done,” he said.

“That’s a Commonwealth matter as well, so we’re doing some work with the feds on that as well.”

Mr Andrews also called on the building industry to be vigilant about potentially dangerous cladding and to report any suspicion they had received falsely labelled products to the Victorian Building Authority.

“I think the vast majority of people in this industry want to build a high quality product because they know that is the only sustainable business model, so we are relying on them," he said.

“We have the most comprehensive picture and plan anywhere in the world, and we need to, because lives are at stake if you don’t get this right.”