House debates

Monday, 22 February 2010

Questions without Notice

Home Insulation Program

2:15 pm

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

My question is again to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. I refer the minister to the Minter Ellison risk assessment on his now failed home insulation scheme provided to his department prior to the commencement of the scheme in July last year and in particular to the warnings that this risk assessment contained about program timing, compliance, fraud, safety and the potential for house fires. I ask the minister: was he briefed on and did he read any part of the report prior to receiving the full report a fortnight ago? Why did he not read the full report immediately and respond immediately and why did he not table the full report, including the so-called risk register, rather than the selected parts of the full report?

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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The answer to that question is that I received the full Minter Ellison report this year and that is the first occasion that I saw and read that report in its entirety. The second part of his question to me I respond to as follows. In determining a risk assessment mechanism for the rollout of the Home Insulation Program, I understand my department drew on a range of sources and information including the Minter Ellison risk assessment report and began to deliver a risk register as a consequence of that report. The totality of advice that I received, including my department’s identification of matters raised not only in that report but in others coming through to me, I have responded to. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: I have responded to it in these terms which were to ensure that we put in place a delivery of the Home Insulation Program that provided for the management of risk to acceptable levels.

A number of those matters that have been identified in this report were identified in other engagements that were brought to my attention over time—namely, consultations with stakeholders, views of relevant technical experts and otherwise. The task that I set myself was to determine that the advice that I received was the appropriate advice to act upon. I put in place a series of measures to ensure the rollout of this program taking into account any matters identified by the department and brought forward to me by way of advice. That is what I did in relation to this program. There are a staged series of additional announcements I made on the basis of advice I received to lift issues in relation to safety and subsequently to training. It is a case of managing acceptable risk levels that has always been the determiner for me as minister. That is why I have made every decision up to the decisions I have made in the last week.