Australia’s Combustible Cladding Crisis—A Failure in Delegated Legislation?

Abstract

Australia’s combustible cladding crisis is estimated to cost approximately $6 billion to remediate. No study has been published which determined the causative factors for the magnitude of this issue. Investigators for the Federal Building Ministers’ Forum stated that building practitioners misinterpreted or ignored the requirements of the National Construction Code. However, research by the authors showed that the cause of Australia’s combustible cladding crisis are likely deficiencies in the National Construction Code itself. A comparative analysis of historic National Construction Code requirements and recent National Construction Code changes in response to cladding fires showed that the factors which contributed to Australia’s combustible cladding crisis were present for nearly 20 years. Findings also showed that some of the newly introduced measures incorporated in the National Construction Code to address the combustible cladding crisis do not fully address combustible cladding risks and fail to completely address the historical deficiencies.

Keywords

• national construction code
• combustible cladding
• performance-based design
• fire safety
• delegated legislation