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

by leave—I move:

That the Senate notes:

(a)

the Government’s mismanagement of major programs, including the Building the Education Revolution and the Home Insulation Program and other major government initiatives;

(b)

the incredible waste that has resulted from these mismanaged programs; and

(c)

the impact that the waste has had on Australian states.

There is so much evidence now before the Australian public, it beggars belief. Labor made many promises in the lead-up to the 2007 election and many after coming into power. They have promised, but they have not delivered. And, worse still, what they have delivered has been done so badly and so poorly. You see, it is so easy to make promises, but the proper delivery of major projects requires sound financial management, proper planning and resourcing. It is so much more than just big ideas. We saw that under the Howard government. Its fiscal management was great, it paid off Labor’s debt—it took over 10 years to do that—and it left this country and this government with a surplus. But what has the Rudd government done? The waste and mismanagement has been supreme.

Before getting into some of the details, I would just like to note a few examples of the promises that the government made prior to the election. They wanted to bring petrol prices down. They wanted to bring grocery prices down. Well, they have failed. They wanted this takeover of public hospitals. There is a huge failure there, a big question mark. They said they wanted the budget to remain in surplus and there would be no reckless spending. That has been an absolute failure. Laptop computers in schools for years nine to 12—it just has not happened. The students are still waiting. What about the 36 GP superclinics? We had the AMA dinner a few nights ago, and the Prime Minister stood up there saying he has delivered on health. Well, he has not delivered on the GP superclinics. I think we have two that are operating. What about the 260 childcare centres that would be operating around Australia in each of the communities that need them? That has not happened either. They promised no means testing of private hospitals. Well, they have broken their promise. I am so proud of the coalition. I am proud of the members in this Senate who said, ‘No, don’t break your promise!’ We said no to the breaking of that promise because Labor have a pathological hatred of private hospitals and anything private.

With regard to the Building the Education Revolution and the Home Insulation Program—the pink batts fiasco, which is what it is—I want to focus in particular on Labor’s environment credibility. The fact is it is in tatters. They came to government and they came to power claiming to have all of the answers on climate change and the environment, but two years later they have not delivered. In fact, they have delivered nothing but a string of broken promises. The pink batts Home Insulation Program has gone from bad to worse. It seems to be getting worse every day. We have a tragic situation where four young Australians have died, and their deaths are linked to the government’s pink batts Home Insulation Program. You have the 105 house fires. These are the house fires that we know of, but the number keeps increasing. It was 93 a week or so ago, and 82 a few weeks before that, but the question is: how many more houses are at risk? There were about 1,000 electrified roofs a month or so ago; now it is up to 1,500 electrified roofs and 240,000 dodgy installations.

The day before yesterday there was the answer to a question on notice from me for the Senate committee of inquiry into this matter, ably chaired by Senator Mary Jo Fisher. What was the answer to the question: how many insulation batts were from overseas? We discovered that, out of the 1.1 million homes that have so-called ‘benefited’ under this program, 40 per cent have batts from overseas and of that number one-fifth, or 20 per cent, were from China—that is, we are talking about over 60,000 Australian homes. We are talking about Australian families who have dodgy or noncompliant insulation in their homes. They do not know today whether they are safe; they do not know if their insulation is complying with the Australian standards.

We had Minister Wong in here yesterday saying that the standards are mandatory. She can say whatever she wants—there are 60,000 Australian families today who know, as a result of that answer to a question on notice that came through yesterday, that their insulation is either dodgy, underperforming or non-compliant and that those batts come from overseas, specifically China. That is a great shame. Those batts failed to meet manufacturers’ claims of thermal efficiency and were labelled incorrectly.

What is staggering new information about the 1.1 million homes is that 40 per cent of the insulation came from overseas. This was part of the government’s stimulus package: it was designed to stimulate the Australian economy, to stimulate jobs in Australia. We had Minister Arbib going on about the importance of jobs, jobs, jobs. Where were those jobs created? We know in relation to insulation that 40 per cent of them have been overseas: China, USA, Thailand and Malaysia. That was in that answer, which was tabled yesterday, to a question on notice from me via that Senate committee. This is tragic.

Of course, this is consistent with what the government did with respect to the tax bonus and the money that went overseas. Over $40 million went, very sadly, to dead Australians, to people living overseas and to criminals in prison. That is where they sent that Australian taxpayers’ money. You could not get a worse example of waste and mismanagement. So the government seem to be consistently poorly managing our economy and poorly managing these important government programs. We know that Mr Garrett got the Home Insulation Program wrong. He reduced the $1,600 rebate to $1,200 and he is going to reduce it still in the months ahead. And of course $200 million has just gone up in smoke as a result of that ill-conceived decision. Now we have a rescue package, but we know that the 60,000 homes I referred to are in addition to the 240,000 homes with dodgy insulation and the 1,500 electrified roofs.

I want to read to the Senate of the concerns out there in the local community with respect to families, pensioners—older Australians—and what they have to say. This is from an article by Neil Mitchell in the Herald Sun today. It says:

As each ceiling does catch fire it becomes more obvious that Rudd and his Government have no clue what pain and fear they have created in the community and how many sensible, normally independent people are confused and scared.

The article refers to Frances, who is 82 years old and ‘lives in fear in Albert Park’ in Melbourne:

Frances had insulation installed by what sounds to have been dodgy operators on January 16. They left no details of what they had done and promised to send paperwork that has never arrived.

She doesn’t know if it’s dangerous but as she hears about the fires she becomes more nervous, and rightly so.

Asked to help Frances, the nice lady at Kevin Rudd’s hotline said there was nothing that could be done. A “quality audit” was under way, she said, but those houses were already selected—

and hers was not one of them. The article goes on to talk about the scenario for Frances. She is feeling very confused and concerned. The article says:

So let’s absorb this. An elderly pensioner has had possibly dodgy insulation installed because of an ill-conceived, badly administered piece of Government grandstanding and now lives in fear.

How many Australians are in a position like Frances’? Can the government say how many? Can the government advise this Senate and the Australian people? Can they come clean and express their views? What are they doing about it? They say they are auditing 15 per cent. Frankly, that is not good enough. It seems to me and to others that there needs to be a full, proper and comprehensive audit so that the fear and anxiety can be removed. There are people, including on the other side, who are happy to stand up and spout the importance of older Australians and pensioners. Well, come on! Take a good look at yourself and think about people who are concerned and anxious.

The Prime Minister and Mr Combet, in their responses, spout along the following lines:

… prior to 2009 there were also a proportion of homes which had safety-related issues arising from insulation.

       …         …         …

Melbourne’s fire brigade reports that in the six months to June last year there were seven fires related to insulation. Then this dodgy scheme was introduced and in the next six months the number of insulation-related fires jumped to 31.

Seven to 31 in that space of time! So they cannot just use the excuse, ‘Oh, there is always the odd fire in a roof.’ Come on! You have a fourfold increase in the number of fires in roofs. It is not good enough. People are living in fear and the government is not doing anything about it. I feel very upset and concerned for and on behalf of those Australians who have had enough. They want security; they want confidence in their own homes. They want to be able to walk through that front door, into the kitchen, and sit comfortably there and say, ‘We feel confident. We love our home; we are safe here.’ But that is not happening, as a result of the government’s mismanagement and maladministration of the Home Insulation Program. It is a great shame.

We heard the news just a few days ago about speculation as to whether insurance would cover people’s homes—would they be able to get insurance cover? If they paid the premium, as they had previously done, or if it is a new insurance policy, would the insurance company cover those homes? That was speculated about as well. I do not know the details about that. We have to get to the bottom of it. I would like to know. The Electrical Contractors Association estimates that the audit, if it was done properly and the rectification measures were undertaken, would cost some $450 million. Goodness me! It is a $2.45 billion program, and that is the amount of money that is required to fix it.