Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Public Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. Minister, will you confirm that up to $1 billion of borrowed stimulus funding is going overseas to buy cheap Chinese pink batts and pink batts from other countries rather than supporting Aussie jobs? Why is the government borrowing billions to buy cheap, Chinese pink batts?

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. It is the case that there are some imports of insulation products coming into Australia as a consequence of the government’s Energy-Efficient Homes package. I think that is a function of the great success that this stimulus package has had. I make the point to the members opposite and to those listening that, up until the time that the government introduced the fiscal stimulus package and the energy-efficient component of that package, we had local manufacturers starting to lay people off and local insulation factories starting to close down. As a consequence of the decisions taken by the government, we now have local manufacturers operating 24/7 and the industry confirming to me on a number of occasions that they are employing more and more people in order to meet the demand for insulation and to put ceiling insulation into people’s homes.

The fact is that the homeowners insulation program has been an outstanding success in driving and supporting the local manufacturing industry and it has been an outstanding success in driving employment in those areas that count. I make the point to the member opposite that, when it comes to the supply chain for putting ceiling insulation in a householder’s home, it operates something like this. About 30 per cent of the supply chain goes to the insulation. There is a 70 per cent component of activities that are jobs; that refers to those other matters, whether they be dispatch from the factory, driving it down or making sure that the insulation in the roof is done properly. The government is fully committed to ensuring that our local manufacturing industry is well supported and has every opportunity to produce insulation for the home insulation plan, and that is what is happening. We would very much like to see the minimisation of imports from overseas in order to do that. I make the point that we are doing that by having consistent, ongoing consultation with the industry, but the members should be aware that all insulation installed under this package must meet Australian standards; that includes imported product, and there has been no evidence so far that any imported insulation materials do not meet the minimum standards. If there is any indication of that, I invite members opposite to draw it to our attention.

At the end of the day, this was a component of the stimulus package that the opposition opposed. Now we can see that it is providing a significant boost to local manufacturing, providing a significant boost to employment and doing the job that it was set out to do, and it will continue to do that.