Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to make a few brief comments about the ministerial statement because, like the minister, I too have sat here and been a little disappointed at the level of some of the debate. I think Senator Birmingham’s contribution actually had a lot of positive aspects to it. He was trying to walk a fine line in acknowledging some of the reality that we are confronting in terms of the consequences of this program and the way that it has unfolded but at the same time trying to make some political opportunity out of it. Now this is a political environment and I understand the temptation from time to time to do that, but I think we need to cut away from some of those things. We need to look at the ministerial statement, which is a very honest attempt by this government and this minister to acknowledge and identify the problems that this program has had, and identify a proper way of addressing the problems. Of course the government has expressed regret for some of the negative outcomes of this program. This government takes the deaths very seriously and is deeply concerned about the reasons why they occurred.

Senator Birmingham, in his contribution, did identify the major problem with this program, and that was fraudsters, shysters and shonky operators coming into the system and conducting fraud, criminal activity and non-compliance. They avoided their obligations under the law and, in particular, under the occupational health and safety law. That is of deep concern to this government.

It is very easy for the opposition to say, ‘Well you should have managed the program better.’ There has been a rollout of 1.1 million homes in insulation since this program began, averaging 137,000 homes being insulated per month. I think what the opposition are suggesting is that the government—and the hyperbole over there would suggest the minister himself—should have been on the job checking on every operator in every instance, to make sure that they were following the program guidelines. The operators were legally obliged to follow these, and to comply with their legal requirements regarding occupational health and safety and all the other employment arrangements that are supposed to be put in place. These are the normal things every single employer is supposed to do. The suggestion that the minister or the department should be on the job watching every single operator—with 137,000 homes per month being insulated—is just ridiculous.

It is an obvious political line which they would like to run: ‘Well you are responsible for the program because you run it.’ We have taken the responsibility that we should take. But the problem with the fraud was not about the government making the money available for home insulation; it was about criminal activity—people avoiding their legal obligations as employers. They ought not do that. Those people ought to be held to account and this government will make them be held to account. This government, with the Federal Police and the other law enforcement agencies, will pursue those people who defrauded the Commonwealth through this program, who avoided the program guidelines and their obligations under the law and who failed to put proper occupational health and safety programs in place for their employees. They are the shysters; they are the ones who have brought it undone.

The minister went through this in detail in his statement yesterday and it is a pity more members of the opposition have not actually read it. It gives us an honest assessment of where the program is and what this government is going to do about it. The opposition says, ‘Tell us exactly how much this is going to cost.’ A lot of those things are still being worked through in fine detail but not too far into the future we will be able to identify those costs.

I think a question was asked in question time today about what sort of square meterage of insulation had been installed—what a ridiculous question. Every house has a different square meterage. To expect the minister in question time to do a calculation and work out how many square meters of roof insulation have been put in to 1.1 million houses is just ridiculous.

It demonstrates the poverty of the debate that the opposition have brought to this whole issue. They ought to now be a little bit more serious. They have made their political points, they have made their political opportunism, but they ought not make politics with the tragic aspects of this program. We need to get on and pursue those who have defrauded the government and those who have avoided their obligations. But it is also worth making the point that there were a lot of excellent operators in the system. There were long-established companies that did well, and the vast majority of home insulations were actually done in accordance with the program guidelines and with the law. It is a shame that it was those unscrupulous operators that took advantage of this program that have brought it into disrepute and created the problems we have. We acknowledge that that has damaged the whole of the industry—we freely acknowledge that. That is why, through the ministerial statement, the minister has indicated a range of programs of assistance to the industry itself and assistance to those employees who, as a result of a program closing down, will find themselves in a difficult employment situation or unemployed. We have programs in place for that and we have industry assistance programs.

We would have preferred to be in a situation where this program could continue to be rolled out, but that was not the decision that was made because of those operators that avoided the obligations of the program and their obligations under the law. So here we are doing what the government needs to do. We want to now fix those problems. We freely acknowledge the problems that are there and we want to do what is in our power to fix those problems and move forward. It is nearly as if the opposition, after acknowledging the problems and having the government acknowledge the problems that we have, do not want the solution. They do not want the solution, and now it is about opposing what the government is putting in place to address those very issues.

We want to provide some certainty for the future of this industry. Home insulation is an important thing. This program was delivering home insulation to many hundreds of thousands of people who otherwise would not have been able to afford it. The vast majority of the insulation has been installed properly. People across the board, the vast majority of those 1.1 million households, are actually obtaining the benefit of the government’s program. That ought not be lost on people. The stimulus impact to the economy when it needed it was also achieved. That ought not be lost either.

The government has taken responsibility for the management of the program for which it had responsibility and control. We need to home in on those who undermined the system, those who defrauded the Commonwealth and those who avoided their obligations under the law. We need to pursue those people and we need to really sheet the blame home honestly, without the politics that the opposition likes to apply to this, and ensure that we can move on with this program.

Question agreed to.