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

In rising to address the Home Insulation Program (Commission of Inquiry) Bill 2011 I do so with a great deal of sadness. This bill should never have been necessary. This program should never have been allowed to have commenced. This program should never have continued. This program should never have been allowed to have wrought the damage which it did not only to homes and to businesses but also, above all else, to Australian families. This program should never have been allowed to have gone untested for so long and to have been effectively whitewashed to this point in time.

Let me begin with the problems inherent in the Home Insulation Program. These problems were identified right from the outset, from February 2009. The problems were identified by industry as the risk of fraud, the risk of fire and the risk of fatalities. All warnings needed were delivered. All warnings needed were ignored. All warnings made, sadly, it came to pass, had a human reality. The Home Insulation Program is a source of disgrace for this government. On its own it should have been enough to have seen this government lose office. In every possible respect of due diligence, in every facet of ministerial and governmental accountability there was failure. Everything which came to pass was foreseen, forewarned and recognised in advance. And everything which came to pass was conveniently ignored by the government.

Let me continue with the destruction that this program brought. We know that there were approximately 200 house fires as a consequence of an Australian government program. I have no knowledge in the treasury of my own memory bank of anything which compares to this as an example failure of governmental policy in Australian history. Beyond that though there were over 1,500 potentially deadly electrified roofs and approximately 60,000 houses which were insulated with foil and which had to have that foil either ripped out or subject to electrical interceptors. Beyond that, approximately 200,000 houses had dangerous or dodgy insulation installed in some form or another. One and a half billion dollars were effectively wasted on the Home Insulation Program and the best part of another billion dollars has been allocated to clean up the program—$2½ billion dollars of waste.

But all of this pales into insignificance by comparison with the human loss of the four young lives lost in association with this program. Each of these losses of life was subject to warning in advance. Master Electricians Australia made the warnings. The National Electrical and Communications Association of Australia made the warnings. The state and territory authorities warned of fires and fatalities months prior to the first of these tragedies. And the government ploughed ahead. The essential group of four key coordinating ministers, one of whom is now the Prime Minister of Australia, another one of whom is now the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, another one of whom has been promoted to education minister—these critical ministers plus Minister Garrett ploughed on in the face of overwhelming evidence. These tragic and irresponsible decisions have never been brought to account. Those most responsible for the worst decisions in Australian policy history have been promoted. That is the culture of responsibility which exists under the current government.

In those circumstances and against that background it is time for a full judicial commission of the inquiry into the Home Insulation Program, its failures of design, its failures of delivery and its failures of accountability. This bill, the Home Insulation Program (Commission of Inquiry) Bill 2011, is designed to go where no inquiry has been allowed to date. It begins at the top: what were the warnings and advice on the Home Insulation Program received by ministers from industry, from Commonwealth agencies, from state and territory agencies, from unions, from members of the public? What were the decisions by a minister to reject such warnings or advice? What did the Home Insulation Program require of Commonwealth officers and agencies, state and territory governments and agencies, and contractors? But, above all else, the Auditor-General was prevented, in terms of his remit, from examining the decisions, the processes and the nature of conduct by ministers and ministers’ officers. That was conveniently placed beyond the reach of the Auditor-General of Australia, and it is a matter of profound shame not just for this government, not just for the Labor Party, but particularly for the four critical ministers engaged plus the then minister for the environment and the now promoted minister for education.

It cannot be that in a system of governance which preaches responsibility, transparency and sunlight that ministers of the Crown responsible for this program are allowed to escape without any investigation. It is a dark stain on public policy and transparency in Australia. Against that background, this bill seeks to institute a judicial inquiry which asks for nothing more than the truth and the facts to be made available to the public as to how a program with such catastrophic human consequences, with such tragic material consequences and with such extraordinary financial consequences could be conceived in the first place, could be delivered in the face of warnings and could be continued in the face of damning evidence.

The federal opposition first called for an Auditor-General’s inquiry on 27 and 28 August 2009. The program continued—in the face of such manifest public evidence; in the face of the calls from the federal opposition—through September and October and November and December 2009, all the while with the now Prime Minister saying: ‘It’ll be fine. It’s all okay. We’ve got it in hand.’ It then continued through January and February 2010, until it was finally suspended after the fourth of the human tragedies. This process is unacceptable, extraordinary and an indictment upon the governing culture present in the current Australian government. How can it be that after the first tragedy the program was not stopped, after the second tragedy the program was not stopped, after the third tragedy the program was not stopped, and it took until the public outcry after the fourth tragedy before this program was stopped?

This is a dark stain upon this government, upon the party responsible, upon the ministers responsible. I also say to this parliament, because we in the opposition tried but obviously we were not successful, that I apologise to all those families involved on behalf of the federal opposition. Even though we carried the torch we were not successful in going further. I wear that consequence every day, that we were not able to execute pressure on the government. So this bill should be passed and ministers should be held accountable. I turn to the Independents in this chamber: I respect your position. This bill is about transparency in terms of the greatest failure this parliament has seen for many decades. I commend the bill of the House. (Time expired)

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