Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

Probably part of the NBN. We know what a fiasco and a disaster that has been, Senator Fisher. They say that ‘inspections will occur over time’, but there is no time line. Is it 12 years, 12 months, two months, 12 days? How long is it going to be before Australian families can be confident that their own homes are safe? Minister Garrett, you should hang your head in shame as a result of this botched housing insulation program. It is a great shame.

What about the businesses affected? What about the workers who are going to lose or have already lost their jobs? I spoke to Peter Banjanin of Sunshine Coast Insulman Insulation Pty Ltd on the weekend, who, sadly, had to sack his 11 employees over the weekend. He tells me he has stock valued at $150,000 to $200,000 in his business on his premises. He asked me, ‘What am I going to do with it?’ What does Minister Garrett say about that? I asked the department this morning if there would be any compensation available for those businesses that are responsible—that are doing the right thing, did the right thing and met all the requirements, including the safety standards. What is up with them? I was also advised that last Friday the government’s own website was unavailable. There was some sort of meltdown last Friday. Whether that is correct or not, we will need to find out, but that is the advice I received from that gentleman. Clearly this is a dud program and the government must stand accountable.

In terms of the cost, waste and mismanagement of this $2.45 billion program, it knows no bounds. We have asked questions in the Senate committee on imports. Of course, this program was designed to strengthen the Australian economy. We know that a very significant percentage of the insulation has had to be imported from overseas, whether it be the US or China. We were advised last Wednesday in Melbourne that between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the insulation was non-compliant. The department says that it is about 16 per cent, or 160,000 homes with substandard insulation. The fact is that it is not good enough.

I asked questions this morning about the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Do Not Call Register. ACMA has apparently had complaints more than double in the past three months as a result of the Housing Insulation Program, so we need to get to the bottom of that and I have asked for a briefing on it. They should come clean and reveal this information now. We should not need to wait. What about the response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission? It apparently took several months to respond to the department of the environment’s first letter of 9 May to the ACCC asking for details of those people who may be breaching either the Trade Practices Act or some fair-trading legislation. What about the three businesses that are currently being investigated by the Australian Federal Police? What is happening to them? We asked questions this morning about the audit for those homes that have been affected, the 80,000 that have a safety risk and the 160,000 or thereabouts that have substandard insulation. All we could hear were words, not action; we need action and we need it fast because there are so many people affected.

We heard about the various reports. We have not only the Minter Ellison report but also an Ernst and Young report, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report and a KPMG report—numerous consultants and experts have been appointed to give the department advice. We want to get to the bottom of it and we would like to know what exactly the cost is to the taxpayer for all of this, and a breakdown of those costs. There is apparently an MOU with the state and territory fair-trading organisations. We would like to see that. I know they have been active, including in Tasmania. So there is a lot more to go on this, but the fact is that the Australian people have been let down big time and this government has a duty of care to all of those affected. (Time expired)