NSW State Government to act on window safety

The NSW State Government has today promised that it will implement the recommendations of the Children's Hospital at Westmead and enact legislation to address window safety – and in particular, the awful problem of children falling from windows in apartments.

This is great news – congratulations to the NSW State Government and to Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts, who will be responsible for the legislation.

In particular, the Government says the new laws will require the installation of window safety devices on windows in residential strata schemes, and include a new item about window safety devices in the standard condition report for residential tenancies. The Government is asking for public comment on the precise details of the reforms.

The TU supports the measures proposed, and will be suggesting a few more changes to ensure there are no gaps in the reforms. For example, while most tall residential buildings are in strata schemes, some are not: there's blocks of flats that have a single owner – notably, social housing owned by the NSW Land and Housing Corporation – and blocks that are in a company title scheme. These sorts of buildings should be subject to the new laws too.