Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

Who remembers Sergeant Schultz from that wonderful program? ‘I know nothing’—that is the response we have received today from Senator Mark Arbib, the minister responsible in this place, and indeed from Mr Garrett, over not only days and weeks but months and months: ‘I know nothing’. We ask questions and we get glib responses saying safety is a top priority. That is the best we can get.

I asked Senator Arbib three questions today. He did not answer one of those questions. He took them on notice, and at the end of question time today gave a glib, short response which was entirely inadequate and did not answer the question. The answer he gave was: ‘I know nothing.’ I asked about the 21 warnings that the minister received. I quoted from his answer to a question yesterday in the Senate. I wanted to know what happened in response to those warnings, and the dates on which the changes were made. At the end of question time he comes up with four—four out of 21 is not a very good track record, Minister. You took those on notice. So I ask you to do the right thing by the Senate, by the public, and come back in here to the chamber and answer those questions. If you cannot do that then do it in quick time, by the close of business, and you will be let off. But the ‘I know nothing’ approach is the Sergeant Schultz response we are getting from this government.

Minister Garrett has said that he has ‘taken advice’ and he has acted on it. In the dark of the night, at six o’clock last night, this government had the temerity to come in here and table a document, the Minter Ellison risk register, which should have been tabled earlier, which was given to the department in April last year. The tabled document was an attachment to the Minter Ellison report, which was released last Friday, which was made public and given to the department in April last year. What does the risk register say? It highlights the risk of fires, fraud, inflated costs and waste. What else does it say? It recommends a three-month delay in the commencement of the project from July to September last year. The minister has said categorically, black and blue, up hill and down dale, ‘I acted on advice.’ Mr Deputy President, please can we get an honest answer from the ministers responsible, Mr Garrett and Senator Arbib, today? Please can they come clean and explain in detail exactly the advice they received and when they acted on it—because it beggars belief that no minister, and no ministerial adviser, saw or read the Minter Ellison report of April last year, were advised with respect to it or were informed with respect to the risk regarding this Home Insulation Program, which is now an absolute fiasco.

This government has no shame. We now have 80,000 homes across the country with safety risks from their insulation. We have 160,000 homes across the country with substandard or non-compliant insulation. In Tasmania, on a population share basis, that is 2,000 homes with a safety risk and 4,000 with substandard or non-compliant insulation. That is not good enough. And I see in the Daily Telegraph today, in relation to waste and mismanagement, that the potential or actual waste is some $400 million. Mind you, that is one in four. So, if you have had insulation put into your home, be careful—that is nearly one in four homes that will need to be checked out or audited and that are subject to safety concerns or substandard insulation. That is a big problem—please, watch out. Fifteen per cent are now going to be audited.

As to the time frame, apparently, according to the Herald Sun, Mr David Wise rang the hotline yesterday and was advised that it would take five years before his house would be checked by the government. Come on! Is there a duty of care to the families, to the people in these homes that have had insulation installed? Come clean. This is just another broken promise from the list of broken promises that the government have made. They have had so many blunders: GROCERYchoice, Fuelwatch, the hospitals that were to be fixed by 30 June 2009, the private health insurance rebate broken promise, the childcare places broken promise, the GP superclinics broken promise—it goes on and on. When will this government stand responsible and accountable for their actions? It is a great shame.