Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. How can the minister explain the fact that his failure to properly administer his portfolio has now resulted in the suspension of the foil batts component of the Home Insulation Program and an inquiry into the complete collapse of the Green Loans Program? Will the minister now guarantee that every home with a potentially electrified roof will be subject to an audit and repair?

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 Leader of the Opposition for his question and I say, at the outset, that the safety of householders in this program of home insulation is an absolute priority for this government, and that is why the announcement has been made today—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The minister has the call.

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

to suspend foil insulation in ceilings pending investigations and discussions between my department, safety authorities, the industry itself and technical experts.

That comes on top of a number of steps that have been taken in relation to this program, including the decision that I took on 1 November to ban the use of metal fasteners in the installation of foil insulation, and also for the targeted safety program of some 10 per cent in Queensland where there is a significant number of homes with foil insulation in them. That targeted program is underway, and I can report to the House that there are a number of interim results from some 400 homes that have already had their inspections concluded.

We will continue to look carefully at the results of the remainder of that program. If it is necessary to expand that program on the basis of providing additional certainty for the delivery of that program, we will. But let us be very clear: the program guidelines at present provide for greater levels of safety and accreditation than is required under Australian standards and under the Building Code of Australia, and I say to people that it is now a specific requirement on the part of installers that they actually make sure that, pre-installation, they conduct a risk assessment. So there is a responsibility on the part of insulation installers to ensure that they observe the guidelines that we have in place and that they make sure that, when they go into the ceiling, there are no risks in relation to this program.

As I said at the outset of this answer, safety is an absolute priority for the government in delivery of this program. If there are any additional measures required to increase the levels of safety that already exist in our guidelines, then we will take those steps as necessary.