e-Blast: The Australian Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to review Disability (Access to Premises – Building) Standards 2010.
The Australian Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources is reviewing the Disability (Access to Premises – Building) Standards 2010. The Premises Standards’ purpose is to ensure:
- people living with a disability and their family members, carers and friends have equal access to buildings
- building certifiers, developers and managers fulfil their responsibilities to people with disabilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992
The Standards:
- apply to new buildings
- apply to new work like renovations on existing buildings
- don’t cover people’s homes
The Standards are contained in the National Construction Code, which makes access requirements mandatory. They are enforced by state and territory regulators, and the Australian Human Rights Commission can also investigate and resolve complaints of unlawful discrimination on disability grounds.
The Standards are reviewed every five years, and the Review Team wants to hear from anyone affected by the Premises Standards so they can understand whether they are working as intended and whether they could make improvements. They are looking for feedback from:
- people with disability
- family members, carers or friends
- disability advocates
- people in the building industry
- people from government or local council
There’s an Easy Read guide on their consultation page and a link to their online survey – the survey closes on 30 November 2020.
This is the beginning of the consultation process – there will be a discussion paper released in the future asking for more detailed feedback, so there will be ongoing opportunities to comment and QDN will be making a submission if you’d like to send feedback through to us.
QDN encourages members to take the online survey and contribute their voice and experiences to inform the Premises Standards review.