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Category: Emergency Incidents / Building and Construction

Union seeks tough penalties for companies aware of cracks before Myer wall collapse

Tuesday, 25 Oct 2016 04:37:14 | Rhiana Whitson

A crack in an arcade area photographed on 14 July 2016. (Supplied: Building Control)

A construction union wants companies that knew of damage to shops before the collapse of the Hobart rivulet wall to face tough penalties.

In July a torrent of water broke through the wall in central Hobart, flooding the Myer construction site and damaging shops in the adjacent Cat and Fiddle Arcade.

In his audit, director of building control Dale Webster found the legislative process for protection work was not adhered to by some responsible parties.

Mr Webster found that representatives of several companies involved in the Myer redevelopment — Silverleaf Investments Pty Ltd, Gandy and Roberts Consulting Engineers, architects Designhaus, PDA Surveyors and Hutchinson Builders — were aware of "not insignificant damage occurring to tenancies in the Cat and Fiddle Arcade buildings" more than three weeks before the buildings collapsed.

The damage referred to included cracking in a cement slab and in a wall.

Mr Webster also said the audit highlighted the need for his office to "ensure greater clarity and control in respect of the documentation and certification of protection work."

The CFMEU's Kevin Harkins said the decision to continue work on the Myer redevelopment despite being aware of the damage could have cost lives.

"It's just through pure luck rather than management that no-one was killed or injured as a result of these decisions," he said.

"So there's a good reason to call for harsher or higher penalties when individuals and workers lives are put at risk."

He said the Tasmanian Government must introduce tough penalties for companies that do the wrong thing.

"There's been discussions before about what penalties should apply and in Tasmania the penalties for breaches of the Work Health and Safety Act are either non-existent or too light," Mr Harkins said.

"I think it's time the Government made some hard decisions about making sure that if people breach the act ... then they need to be penalised heavily for it."

"It's only pure luck there was no-one on the project at the time and no-one in the shop, otherwise we may have been facing something much more severe than what we have got today."

The Government said changes to building regulations come into effect in January.

External Link: Myer wall collapse report

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