Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister and goes to the fact that his disastrous Home Insulation Program is now running at around one house fire every day. Prime Minister, now that the toll from this Home Insulation Program has reached no fewer than 174 house fires, when are you finally going to concede that random safety checks simply do not cut it when it comes to safety and agree to inspecting every one of the one million or so Australian homes that have been affected by this program—if so, when; if not, why not?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. On the question of the impact of the government’s insulation safety program—that is, the inspection program—as the honourable member would be aware, we currently have that program underway for a foil insulation safety program, and that is designed to cover some 50,000 homes. In relation to non-foil insulation we also have a program of inspection, which covers a considerably larger number of homes.

The minister responsible for the area continues to keep our inspection regime under review. Should there be any changes to it in the future, the House will be informed. I say to those opposite that, as a consequence of problems which have arisen in the implementation of this program, we are seeking to ensure that safety is maximised in the community, and the minister is attending to this task with full diligence and full application. I thank the House.