Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is the government suppressing the results of 96,000 foil and non-foil insulation safety inspections that show the extent of the risk of fire and electrocution under the government’s Home Insulation Program? Does the Prime Minister support the suppression of this safety information from the more than 1.1 million homeowners whose roofs are still to be inspected?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question, which I believe may be her first. What I can say to her is that I presume she is referring to the sample that was referred to in the Auditor-General’s report. What I would say to her about that sample is that it was a sample that was risk based, so it is not an accurate sample of the program overall. The figure is not necessary representative of all installations, so consequently the government have determined that we will not be providing a running commentary on the results of the inspections today because that data would not be helpful because of the risk profile. An expert—

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

Mr Abbott interjecting

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition was clearly not listening. It is not a representative sample of the program overall. What we will do of course is continue to work through, providing inspections to households. They are being provided on a risk basis. There is a number that people can call and obviously all foil is being inspected. At the end of those processes we will obviously be in a different position in relation to information than we are now where the data that the member refers to is not a representative sample overall.