Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Canning will resume his seat. People want to try to control what is happening here by interjection. For several seconds there was only one person seeking the call, and that was the member for Canning. The member for Canning has the call.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer the minister to advice received that a Western Australian installer paid $6,000 for 100 packs of 20 insulation batts last month. This month he paid $5,240 for 50 packs of 10 batts. That is a price hike of four times the cost of the original unit—costs that are being passed on to the Australian taxpayer. Will the minister explain to the house how a quadrupling of the pink batts price represents value for money?

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 and I am happy to take on notice that particular matter that he refers to, see whether there is additional information in relation to the views that he has put to me about that, come back to the House and report to them. But I make that response in the context of issues that have been raised by the opposition previously, including that by the member for Hinkler which I referred to in question time yesterday. We found that, on examining the view of the company in question that the member purported to represent here in the parliament, in actual fact the claims that the member made in the parliament were false.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The minister has conceded that he has completed the answer to the direct question. There is a process of the House to add to an answer. He can make use of that if he wants to do what he is trying to do now.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister must relate his material to the question that has been asked.

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

I make the point to the House that since the inception of this program two things have happened. The first is that we have had a record number of ceiling insulations take place in a record short period of time. This was for a program that those opposite opposed. The second thing is that we have put in place a range of compliance and auditing measures in order to make sure that the taxpayer gets very good value for this program that the government is delivering. Let us remember that we are delivering a program that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, that employs Australians, that puts ceiling insulation in the roof to enable Australians to lower their energy costs and—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I am reminded by the opposition making these claims in the parliament that when the member for Flinders went into hysterical mode about solar panels earlier in the year—when we discovered that he was jumping out of a plane without a parachute, so to speak—the number of solar panels that were going onto roofs—

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order that goes to relevance: the question I asked the minister was about the quadrupling of the costs to this installer in my electorate. He has run out of—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Canning will resume his seat. The minister will respond to the question.

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

I simply make the point that one listens carefully to the questions that are put by the opposition and to the views that are put by the opposition, and when it comes to some members of the opposition—in particular the member for Flinders, who said that this program was falling apart at the seams when we had 290,000 installations—I think it is time to put these questions in context. But we will take seriously the question that the member has put. I will come back to the House. I make this final point. If we are serious about addressing climate change—as we are on this side of the House—then the Energy Efficient Homes Program, which has only 0.3 per cent of actual issues that have been raised on a program that up to this point in time has been phenomenally successful in its deployment, is doing the job that it was required to do.