Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

Let me begin with the very simple facts in relation to the Home Insulation Program. It is a program about which this government will not speak, which they will not acknowledge and of which they are utterly ashamed. The reasons are very simple: 120 house fires at a minimum; 1,500 potentially deadly electrified roofs; 240,000 dangerous or substandard roofs—all using the government’s figures. Of course, at the heart of the issue associated with this program is the tragic loss of four young lives. This program has been catastrophic. The Home Insulation Program—the pink batts program, as it is more widely known—was ill-conceived, ill-constructed and utterly deficient in its management. Beyond the human tragedies, beyond the impact which is unparalleled in terms of 240,000 houses, is the sheer waste of the program.

The waste of the program can be summed up in a very simple figure. The budget papers, put down two nights ago, show—buried on page 24 of the special estimates for the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency—a provision of almost $1 billion to fix the program. Let me run through the figures for that: $340 million for the Home Insulation Program inspection category; $84 million for the foil insulation program; $15 million for helping installers; and $41 million for the retraining package for workers. There is an additional $508 million, under the Home Insulation Program itself, which is unallocated and provisioned to allow for the further fix-up costs. We have almost $1 billion.

In addition to that there is an extra $136.8 million of unaccounted money in the low emissions for renters program which was discontinued on 1 September last year but for which provisioning has been made for the next two years. That is another hollow log. So potentially there is over $1.1 billion which has been set aside. There is no explanation for why a discontinued program has funding allocated in the out years.

So let us be very clear. The problem is real and human and catastrophic and should never be repeated by any government in this country ever again. The cause is significant. The cause is that the government was warned at the level of Prime Minister and environment minister that this program could be enormously dangerous. We know that there have now been 26 warnings given to the government at the highest levels—26 warnings from industry, from the unions, from the state and territory governments on 29 April last year which warned of fires and fatalities. Then last weekend we heard and saw that the inner cabal, the most senior advisers, those who worked directly with the Prime Minister’s office, warned on at least three occasions of injury, fires and fatalities, on 17 July, in September and again in October of last year. These warnings by the project control group were real and profound and unheeded by a government which at the level of Prime Minister chose to ignore the warnings, chose to ignore the warnings for political reasons, with catastrophic human consequences, with unacceptable tragic losses in terms of 120 house fires, with the risk to 240,000 homes from dangerous or potentially substandard insulation. Then there is the inexplicable loss of a billion dollars to fix this program. How can that be? The action is very simple. The Prime Minister must apologise as he has not done to the nation and to householders for these losses. He has finally, under pressure, apologised to the families, but he has not made an apology to the nation for the loss and the waste and, above all else, ignoring the warnings. He must also have a royal commission and he must commit to ensuring that all homes are inspected. This waste is unacceptable. (Time expired)

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