House Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
Inquiry into the draft Disability (Access to Premises - Buildings) Standards Please note: the information on this page is also available in PDF format. To view the information in this file format you will need Adobe Acrobat® PDF Reader, which can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe®. For more information see Accessing files.

12 February 2009

Draft Australian Standards to provide access to buildings

The House Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee today released three draft Australian Standards relating to access to premises for people with disabilities. The Australian Standards provide technical detail to support the draft Disability (Access to Premises – Buildings) Standards (Premises Standards). The drafts will assist community organisations and other stakeholders in preparing their submissions to the Committee’s inquiry into the appropriateness and effectiveness of the Draft Disability (Access to Premises - Buildings) Standards.

“The consultation drafts of these Australian Standards will inform stakeholders as they consider their submissions to the Committee’s inquiry into the Premises Standards. I encourage relevant disability and building industry representative bodies, state, territory and local government organisations, people with disability and other members of the public to examine the draft standards, consider how they impacts on their interests, and make a submission to our inquiry”, Mr Dreyfus said.

Consultation drafts of revisions to the following Australian Standards have been made available on the Inquiry website:

• AS 1428.1 —General requirements for access — New building work
• AS/NZS 1428.4.1 —Tactile ground surface indicators for the orientation of people with vision impairment, and
• AS/NZS 2890.6 —Off-street carparking for people with disabilities.

These Australian Standards have been updated to reflect policy decisions adopted during the formulation of the Premises Standards and can be downloaded here.

The Committee has been asked in inquire and report on the following terms of reference:

1. The appropriateness and effectiveness of the proposed Premises Standards in achieving their objects.
   

2. The interaction between the Premises Standards and existing regulatory schemes operating in state and territory jurisdictions, including the appropriateness and effectiveness of the proposed Model Process to Administer Building Access for People with Disability.
   

3. Whether the Premises Standards will have an unjustifiable impact on any particular sector or group within a sector.
   

4. Any related matters

Submissions addressing the terms of reference should be emailed or posted to the Committee by 27 February 2009. For late submissions please contact the Secretariat. Public hearings for the inquiry are likely to be conducted in March 2009.

Additional media information

For interview, contact the Committee Chair, Mr Mark Dreyfus QC, MP on (02) 6277 4305 (Canberra) or in his electorate on (03) 9769 1955; or Mr Dreyfus’ media adviser, Tim Lisle-Williams on 0431 178 280.

For background information, including the full terms of reference, please visit the inquiry website at www.aph.gov.au/laca or contact the Committee Secretariat on (02) 6277 2358.

Related link

• Printable version of this media release (PDF 37KB)

Back to top