Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

And now he is sitting down—given he made the comment about my colleague. There were problems with the program and in my state of Queensland the foil installation has been significantly problematic. Mr Combet has received advice from the Electrical Safety Office in Queensland recommending that horizontally laid foil installation be removed or, alternatively, that safety switches be installed in household electrical circuits.

I have foil in the ceiling of my home. It is installed against the corrugated iron roof. In my view, and certainly it is the advice from the Electrical Safety Office, that is the appropriate place for it to be installed if it is in a ceiling. We now have advice from that office that horizontally laid foil should not be used. That information was not previously available to the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts, Mr Garrett, and Minister Combet is now responding to that. Mr Combet has advised that the Australian government will fully fund the removal of foil from or the installation of safety switches in houses that have had foil installation installed under the program.

Senator Bernardi was asserting that our ministers are being less than cooperative in answering questions. Some of the questions being asked are unanswerable. They are foolish questions and simply, at this point in time, cannot be responded to. Minister Combet, Minister Wong and Minister Garrett, when he had responsibility for this work, were being totally cooperative with questions that were being asked in this place and elsewhere. Mr Combet has said, ‘An announcement concerning the details of these further measures will be made as soon as possible.’ That is a reasonable response to what is—