How close to a building is a Tree allowed to be?

I just picked up from ABC Radio the following:

When a tree is closer to a building than its own height,

then this tree can or should be removed! No permission

needed for removal of such a tall tree!

This indeed does make a lot of sense to me.

I love all trees very, very much.

However, my common sense tells

me, that trees that tend to grow

extremely high, should not be planted

too close to any building! 🙂

I do not know whether there

exist any exceptions to this rule – !

I live in Australia. Maybe in some other

countries very tall trees do not cause

all these problems they are likely to

cause in Australia.