Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I want to take note of this annual report of the former Department of Climate Change and refer to the Labor Party’s Home Insulation Program, which is an example of systemic policy failure with the deepest human consequences. Minister Combet has now upped the government figures to 105 house fires and potentially 1,500 deadly electrified roofs. Labor has no plan to examine all of the one million houses insulated and no plan to fix the 240,000 houses that have been made unsafe or have dodgy insulation.

But the consequences are not just severe for homeowners. I want to turn to a report in the Colac Herald from yesterday, I think it was. It was an article by Mr Brett Worthington. This is the local Colac paper, and the member down there, of course, is Mr Darren Cheeseman, one of the laziest members of parliament that I have ever seen in nearly 17 years.

Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe that there has just been a reflection on a member in another place. I ask you, Mr Acting Deputy President, to require the senator to withdraw it.

Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ronaldson, referring to a member of parliament as ‘lazy’ is a personal reflection and I ask that you withdraw that reference, please.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Clearly the truth is no defence and I withdraw. The article in the Colac Herald

The Acting Deputy President:

I ask that you withdraw the remark without qualification.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, I thought that was implicit in my comment. If it was not, I will certainly give that.

The Acting Deputy President:

Thank you, Senator Ronaldson.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The article in the Colac Herald is headed ‘Insulation woes hurt reputation’ and there is a photograph of Darren Pyne with the Liberal candidate for Corangamite, Sarah Henderson. The photograph is captioned ‘ANGER’ and there was absolute anger, I can assure you, Mr Acting Deputy President, from Mr Pyne. Mr Pyne runs a business called WestVic Kitchens. As the article says, he:

… fears the demise of a national insulation scheme has tarnished his business reputation.

       …         …         …

‘I have been working on my reputation for 20 years, my family and kids are all here, it is all I know,’ he said.

The article went on to say:

The Federal Government made an overnight decision on February 19 to stop and insulation rebate scheme immediately after four deaths of installers and about 90 insulation-related house fires.

Mr Pyne said the government still owed him $80,000 in rebates.

The article went on to say:

Mr Pyne said the program axing forced him to sack 10 contract workers.

He said he felt for the staff who fired, two of which he said were ‘struggling to cope’ with the news.

He went on to say that this program was ‘poorly managed’. Here we have in Colac, in the heart of the seat of Corangamite, a long-term resident of the area, Mr Darren Pyne of WestVic Kitchens, who has said quite clearly that the program, which was axed because of the systemic failure of good policy, has dramatically impacted his business. I ask the question: where has Mr Cheeseman been in relation to this matter? Where has Mr Cheeseman been to address this issue? Why isn’t Mr Cheeseman standing up and saying to the government, ‘This program is costing my constituents’? He is missing in action. This man is always missing in action when it comes to the people of Corangamite.

This is a terrible, terrible program with terrible, terrible consequences. Even with a new minister in there, we are no closer to resolution. You look at the former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts and you wonder why Mr Rudd did not sack him. Mr Acting Deputy President, I will tell you why: Mr Rudd and his minister were working on this together, and Mr Rudd went out and told his minister, Minister Garrett, that this is what they were going to do. That is why he has not been sacked. The Prime Minister knows that Mr Garrett is going to spill the beans on this. The Prime Minister knows that Mr Garrett was told by him, the micro-manager of this country, to go and do it. Mr Garrett has not been sacked because the Prime Minister knows full well that the beans will be spilled.

The Prime Minister is directly responsible for this program. Mr Darren Cheeseman, as the member for Corangamite, has got to start standing up for his constituents. He has about six months left, and we cannot wait to see Ms Sarah Henderson as the member for Corangamite. (Time expired)

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the same document, the annual report of the former Department of Climate Change. Senator Ronaldson seems to have a very unhealthy obsession—

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, on a point of order: I am attracted to Senator Marshall’s tie but not so his shirt. I wonder, if Senator Marshall is going to participate in these proceedings, whether he might like to put a coat on. As I said, I like the tie but don’t particularly like the shirt. Perhaps Senator Marshall could be appropriately dressed in the chamber.

Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ronaldson, I think that is probably not a point of order.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, it is not, and there seems to have been a couple of irrational contributions. I was just going to say that Senator Ronaldson really seems to have a very unhealthy obsession with Mr Cheeseman.

Senator Ronaldson interjecting—

Senator Ronaldson says he has more to come, and I hope he has, because I have a lot to say about Corangamite, too. I know Senator Ronaldson has Corangamite as his duty electorate, and I know he is hurt that Mr Cheeseman won the seat of Corangamite after the Liberal Party had held it, if my memory serves me correctly, for 76 years. Mr Cheeseman is the first Labor member for Corangamite for 76 years, and Senator Ronaldson is bitterly hurt.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, on a point of order: I have been listening to Senator Marshall for a minute. We are dealing with government documents and we are dealing with the 2008-09 annual report of the Department of Climate Change. I am not quite sure what that has to do with Mr Cheeseman, whoever he is. So my point of order is on relevance: the senator must talk to this report.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, on the point of order: I know you were in the chair, and Senator Macdonald may not have been listening, but you will have heard Senator Ronaldson, in speaking to this very document, talk about Mr Cheeseman on several occasions. In fact, I recall you actually asking him to withdraw some of his comments. This is a debate, and I am certainly entitled to address some of the issues raised by Senator Ronaldson. Senator Macdonald may not have been listening; that is often the case—we have seen it on many occasions.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, on the point of order: the difference is that Senator Macdonald actually raised a point of order. No point of order against Senator Ronaldson was taken, so whether he was in order or out of order is irrelevant.

The Acting Deputy President:

Thank you for that contribution, Senator Parry. Senator Macdonald, latitude is allowed on these matters, and I am almost confident that Senator Marshall was coming to the point of the document.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for that ruling, Mr Acting Deputy President. I am nearly flattered. First, Senator Ronaldson raises a point of order that I should have a jacket on, which of course is no point of order, and then Senator Macdonald raises a point of order, and I think Senator McGauran was about to jump to his feet, too. I am flattered that they want to try to shut me up, but we need to come back to Senator Ronaldson’s unhealthy obsession with Mr Cheeseman. He is so annoyed about the Labor Party winning that seat after 76 years, because the Liberal Party took that seat for granted. They did nothing for it in their last 11 years in government, and they lost it. What really gets under Senator Ronaldson’s skin now is the fact that Mr Cheeseman is everywhere in the electorate and he is driving Senator Ronaldson absolutely mad. The trouble is that Senator Ronaldson has a candidate and they are trying to make some inroads against Mr Cheeseman and they are failing dismally. Of course, this is a reflection on Senator Ronaldson, because he has been given the difficult task by the state branch of the Liberal Party to try to win that seat back. It must be frustrating for Senator Ronaldson to be trying to make inroads to a seat where there is now a new, youthful, energetic member who is working hard and actually delivering for the constituents of Corangamite—he is everywhere.

You mentioned you were going to talk about some other issues, Senator Ronaldson. I think I can guess what they are, and I will be ready—you know I am ready. It may be about the Colac Herald once again—there have been some more headlines—and I am sure we will have a good discussion about that. But the document we are talking about is the Department of Climate Change annual report—

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good—after three minutes.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You say ‘after three minutes’. That is true, and I am coming to that point. Again, Senator Ronaldson’s unhealthy obsession with Mr Cheeseman took up, I think, most of his contribution to this debate.

Senator Ronaldson interjecting—

I know you are getting a bit embarrassed about it, Senator Ronaldson, but, seriously, you have raised Mr Cheeseman in this place so often. I know it must be very disappointing for you, but he is out there. He will hold the seat, because he is doing a damned fine job and he is working hard.

We had a discussion earlier today on the motion to take note of the ministerial statement on the Home Insulation Program, and I thought at that time that we were actually starting to get some quite reasonable contributions from some of those opposite. In fact, Senator Birmingham started, I think for the first time, to acknowledge what some of the real problems were with this particular program.

The government, through the ministerial statement today, has been very upfront and honest about some of the challenges that we have faced, some of the problems with the program and the consequences of those problems. The ministerial statement goes to a process of actually addressing those issues. It is disappointing that too many people on the opposition’s side seem to take some great joy in some of the bad consequences of the some of the problems that this program had. But we want to get on with the job of fixing it. We acknowledge the problems that are there. We want to get on and fix some of those issues—

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, I raise a point of order. Senator Marshall knows that is a totally inappropriate allegation to make, that we are supportive of the bad aspects of this. I ask him to withdraw. That is not on.

Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order there, Senator Ronaldson. This is a debate that we are having. Senator Marshall, you have 12 seconds left.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There seems to be absolute opposition from the opposition to everything we seek to put in place to address this issue. Unless anyone else is going to speak on this I will seek leave to continue my remarks.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Parry interjecting—

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All right. I was only doing so to be convenient to the chamber! It has been indicated that someone else will speak, so I will simply sit down— (Time expired)

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to address document No. 7, the Department of Climate Change report. This report obviously has links in every state and territory, including the state of Tasmania. Whilst I am speaking about the state of Tasmania I will draw the attention to the chamber of the election that will be occurring not this weekend but the one after. It is very important.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Point of order!

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This has a stronger link to relevance than what Senator Marshall said! I was denied leave a short while ago. I wanted to correct the record. I was speaking to the chamber about the iElect.com.au website, where thousands of people are registering their prediction of what they think the voting outcome will be in Tasmania. Out of a 25-member parliament I said there would be 13 Liberal, nine Labor and four Greens. I was incorrect, and I apologise to the chamber. It is 13 Liberal, eight Labor and four Greens! So I apologise to the chamber and I commend the report of the Department of Climate Change for 2008-09.

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also wish to speak on the Department of Climate Change report for 2008-09. In relation to that report, and the current arrangements that we are discussing here tonight, what is confirmed is that the Labor Party’s environmental credibility is now in tatters. We had a Labor Party that came to power claiming to have all the answers on climate change and the environment. But two years later the Prime Minister, Minister Penny Wong and Minister Garrett—who should not be there but still is—have delivered nothing. We have only had broken promises since they came to power.

Before I comment on the pink batts fiasco, which is not getting better but is actually getting worse, I want to remind the chamber and the public that this government, under Minister Wong and Mr Rudd, has established a special group within the Department of Climate Change, in which they are employing more than 150 public servants to ‘implement and administer’ the government’s ETS, at a cost of $81.9 million—despite the fact that no scheme currently exists because the parliament has twice rejected Mr Rudd’s flawed ETS. How absurd. I commend opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt. He said taxpayers were paying for the phantom, in a classic case of Rudd extravagance. He is right—it is a phantom, and it is a disgrace. It is a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money to have so many people doing not much within the department.

In terms of the pink batts debacle: yes, it keeps getting worse. We have seen today in the Senate the government refuse to say exactly how much it will cost to fix the pink batts fiasco and how long it will take. Minister Wong had the opportunity to respond; she did not. The waste and mismanagement under this government’s failed Home Insulation Program keeps getting worse. It is not getting better; it is getting worse. There are reports today that taxpayers will be forking out an estimated $100 million to remove foil insulation.

Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That’s outrageous.

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is outrageous, Senator Humphries. That is for the removal of the foil insulation or to install the electrical safety switches in 50,000 homes. Goodness, only 150,000 of the more than 1.1 million homes insulated under the program are set for safety inspections. What about all the other homeowners? How are they going to feel? Are they going to feel safe and secure in their homes? How are their families feeling right now? I do not know. This is despite the department admitting, before our Senate committee—ably chaired by Senator Mary Jo Fisher, who is here in the chamber with me tonight—that there were 240,000 homes with dangerous or potentially dodgy insulation. It is not good enough.

In the last seven days we have had the National Electrical and Communications Association estimating that the cost of fixing this program could be in excess of $400 million. When will this waste end? This is a further example of waste and mismanagement under this program, with no end in sight. When you look back over the program you see that it has been a total waste and a botched approach from the very beginning. And it is all of the government’s own making. They try and hide and shift and twist, but this bungled scheme is all of their own making. It has gone from bad to worse. Up to $200 million was wasted by setting the original rebate too high—$1,600 instead of $1,200. Now we have the $100 million estimated in the reports today that needs to be spent on the audits and fixing. And of course the Prime Minister has recently announced a $41 million rescue package.

I notice that in Minister Wong’s statements today she confirmed that a further 106,000 rebate claims have come in since the program was cancelled. That is a huge number. That is yet to be verified, so they need to confirm that, but if those claims are valid then the government still owes up to $127 million to Australian businesses. That is a lot of money. That is taxpayers’ money. This is another blow-out. The waste and mismanagement is shocking. The pink batts fiasco is fast becoming the biggest and worst example of waste and mismanagement in Australian history, with hundreds of millions of dollars wasted and the budget blow-out now approaching $1 billion. That is an absolute disgrace. It is not a revolution that we should consider; this is a waste revolution—and it is a disgrace. (Time expired)

Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, too, wish to speak on this report from the Department of Climate Change. I follow on from Senator Marshall’s comments about the ministerial statement that the Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change, Mr Combet, presented in the House of Representatives yesterday, which was tabled in the Senate today. I would also like to take issue with some of the points made by senators opposite about this program. I note that Senator Barnett, who spoke before me, often likes to stand up in this place and pose as the champion of small business. In his small speech tonight, he contributed in a negative way to the rehabilitation of the home insulation industry. In the situation in which we find ourselves, it is incumbent upon all of us to cooperate in order to restore confidence in this very important industry in Australia and not continually throw hand grenades and incite fear and terror in the public. We need to work together to deal with the shonks in the industry who took advantage of the government’s program and caused all these problems. We need to work together to make sure that small business and those honourable businesspeople engaged in this industry and the people who work for them continue to work in this industry, which delivers great environmental benefits to Australia.

It is not helpful at all, Senator Barnett, to stand up there and spout these figures about costs that you take from the front page of newspapers—and no doubt you also supply them to the newspapers—which have no justification. But you are not really interested in the facts of the matter and, contrary to what you keep saying, you are not interested in business plans or planning. What about the ridiculous proposal for paid parental leave that was announced by the Leader of the Opposition with not only no consultation with his own party but also absolutely no costings involved? It is something that the Leader of the Opposition just shot from the mouth. It is a ridiculous proposal. Those of us who have thought about this may well see it as a deliberate intention to thwart the introduction of any kind of paid parental leave scheme in the Senate. After all, you are indicating that that is what you are going to do, because you know that your own ridiculous scheme, which even Senator Barnaby Joyce is gobsmacked about, will never get up in the Senate, and neither should it.

I return to the Home Insulation Program, the remediation of that and the introduction of the new program that is rightly now with the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, which is very capably led by Minister Wong, ably assisted by Minister Combet. In his ministerial statement yesterday, Minister Combet pointed out some things that we need to remember about the program. I take us back again to the Home Insulation Program, which was part of the government’s economic stimulus package and intended to prevent the worst effects of the global financial crisis, including massive job losses. You over there cannot stand the fact that our economic stimulus package was incredibly successful and that it saved hundreds of thousands of jobs for Australian workers.

You just cannot bear the fact that every time you go out in your electorates you can see the evidence of the success of our economic stimulus package. We are building the best possible schools in Australia. We are investing in education. We are investing in infrastructure such as the NBN that you have been so critical of. We are investing in hospitals. We are investing in the best healthcare services that we possibly can. We have to do it because you did not do it. You did nothing in your 12 years of government. You just let Australia’s infrastructure fall apart. You did nothing for our schools. You did nothing for our health sector. Lord knows how many internet plans there were! There were 18, I think, and all of them were complete failures. All you want to bring back are carrier pigeons and smoke signals! That is what you are after. With that, I conclude my remarks on this report. Is anybody else speaking on it?

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald is, so I will not seek leave to continue my remarks. I know that Senator Macdonald will come out with his usual waffle. (Time expired)

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am participating in the debate on this document, but I, unlike the previous two speakers, want to actually speak on the document. You can understand why the Labor Party cannot manage government, because they do not even understand the rules of the Senate which require senators to speak on the document listed on the Notice Paper. The document we are talking about is a report from the Department of Climate Change. The previous two speakers from the Labor Party spoke about anything but the report. Clearly, they cannot even manage their own thoughts of what they should be talking about in this chamber, and they are very sensitive to the mismanagement of their government.

In talking about this report from the Department of Climate Change, I want to ask the Labor Party where we are in dealing with what was labelled ‘the greatest moral change of our time’. We have not heard about it. It seems to have completely disappeared from the lexicon of Mr Rudd. Yet earlier this year and all of last year Mr Rudd and Senator Wong spoke of nothing else. They kept talking about Copenhagen. They set up this department with almost $82 million for it to deal with climate change. But what has happened now? We do not even hear a squeak about what Mr Rudd labelled ‘the greatest moral challenge of our time’. Quite clearly, Mr Rudd’s interest in climate change was, as with everything else, entirely political. He is all talk and no action. That is why people around Australia are describing him as ‘Prime Minister Blah Blah’. They say that he is just blah blah blah—never any action and all talk.

Indeed, in relation to climate change, apart from setting up a bureaucracy costing the Australian taxpayer $82 million to do absolutely nothing, they will not even bring the legislation before this chamber so that the parliament can deal with the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. And why not? Because it has finally got through to Mr Rudd—it got through to his backbench long before this, but they were all without the intestinal fortitude to tell him, but we all knew—that this was a lemon of a policy. It would have destroyed the jobs of Australian workers, it would have cost Australia competitiveness overseas, and it would not have made one iota of difference to the changing climate of the world. And yet Mr Rudd has wasted $82 million of taxpayers’ money setting up this department to do absolutely nothing, and he is rushing around now trying to try find something for this department and all of those new bureaucrats to do because they are not doing anything about climate change because Mr Rudd does not want to talk about it any more. (Time expired)

Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Your time has expired because we have reached the conclusion of the time for the discussion of government documents. Do you wish to continue your remarks?

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.