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

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, and it also refers to issues of transparency. I refer the minister to his statement yesterday that data on 55,000 insulation safety inspections could not be released because it ‘could cause unnecessary apprehension’. Does this not contrast with the response of the head of the National Electrical and Communications Association that until these inspection figures are released people living in an uninspected insulated home cannot have peace of mind? Will the minister release the data and release the facts?

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for his question. Firstly, it is important to recognise what is being done to remediate the issues that have been experienced with the Home Insulation Program. There are significant safety inspection programs underway in two areas of activity. One is in relation to the former foil insulation that was installed in many homes in Queensland and northern New South Wales. That program is well advanced and is proceeding well and remediating the safety issues that have been experienced along the way. The other program to which the shadow minister refers is the Home Insulation Safety Program, which is inspecting at least 150,000 homes that had non-foil insulation installed within them. I think the latest numbers are in excess of 56,000 homes that have had inspections performed on them. They are being done through contracts entered into by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

An extensive amount of information has been provided by the government in relation to all the activities, including the investigations of noncompliance of various companies and the programs of inspection themselves. A regular update is provided on the website of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Yesterday I and the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency issued a comprehensive statement in relation to the state of play with the remediation of the problems experienced with the Home Insulation Program. The fundamental issue at the core of the shadow minister’s question concerns the fact that the inspection program in relation to non-foil forms of insulation that has been installed is targeted. It is targeted according to a risk assessment. It is not, therefore, representative of a random sample of houses across the cohort, if you like, of homes that had non-foil insulation installed. It is targeted. It is not a random simple.

The inspection program is only partway completed. We are receiving assistance or have commissioned assistance from the CSIRO in the risk assessment that is being developed to identify the homes to inspect. For example, a poor compliance record is obviously one of the criteria used in targeting organisations for inspections. To release that information would not be representative of experience across the program. What the government proposes to do—

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, a point of order on relevance: the minister has not answered the question about releasing the data.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is relating his response to the question and, if you want the added word, ‘directly’. It may not form what one might consider a direct answer, but it is directly relevant. I think you will appreciate that there are two different things. You may couch your question and you can expect a direct answer. The standing order talks of being ‘directly relevant’. Since the interjections have quietened and I have had the ability to listen carefully, I would adjudge that the minister has been directly relevant. He has not entered into debate about this question and brought in any other opinions.

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was saying, what the government proposes to do is to continue the safety inspection program on a targeted risk assessment basis, taking the advice of the CSIRO in the process. We are commissioning a firm to assist with the analysis of all the information and develop a final risk assessment when we are further down the track. The issues that I am adverting to are serious ones. It is not, I think, in the public interest that this material be made available at the moment. It is important to get further down the track. What I propose to do, given the insistence of the shadow minister on it, is to give him a private, confidential briefing on progress and the work that is being carried out. It is an offer that is made in sincerity, because the work that is being undertaken is important and it is being undertaken in all sincerity. If he wishes to take that offer up, it would be most welcome, but he would need to take it up on the terms that have been offered. (Time expired)