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

The Bradford Insulation Group have informed my office that they are adding employees on the manufacturing side alone by some 55 people. That does not include additional jobs in call centres and warehousing. Just last week as well Fletcher Insulation announced an $8 million upgrade to its Victorian manufacturing plant and the extension of its Dandenong and Rooty Hill plants to 24/7 production. That is the Rooty Hill plant in the electorate of Chifley where I understand that, prior to the Energy Efficient Homes package, there was some consideration of rationalising operations. Now they are going 24/7. Fletcher Insulation has also announced the creation of 50 jobs as a result of this increased demand.

What are these jobs about? With Fletcher Insulation these jobs are about pink batts. It is not just about pink batts of course—it is about green batts, it is about polyester, it is about glass wool, it is about rock wool, it is about cellulose, it is about natural wool and it is about foil. If it meets the standards, you can install it under the Energy Efficient Homes plan. But of course pink batts is the product that is so often maligned by the member for North Sydney, the shadow Treasurer, who takes every opportunity to ridicule an investment that is already supporting Australian jobs and saving Australians’ energy bills. ‘We would not have had the pink batts,’ the member for North Sydney says, and he goes out of his way to run down the most cost effective energy efficient improvement that Australians can actually apply at this time, and it is one that produces jobs.

The opposition leader is fond of getting up in the House and saying that it is all about jobs, jobs, jobs, but I saw a weekend report in the Sydney Morning Herald pointing out that when he was environment minister he actually wanted to roll out a program of ceiling insulation around Australia, as this government is doing, but he was blocked by the member for Higgins just as he is being blocked by the Nationals on an emissions trading scheme. I think this says a lot about where the opposition is at because they are voting against and publicly ridiculing measures, and some of these were the same measures that the Leader of the Opposition wanted to introduce when they were in government, but he was not able to.

The government is delivering. It is providing leadership on an issue that produces green-collar jobs, which produces the largest ever energy efficiency program that has been rolled out in this country. It supports and assists Australians in reducing their energy bills; it is taking care of cost-of-living pressures and providing real leadership in the infrastructure of this country; and it is helping people to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

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