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

I also wish to speak on the Department of Climate Change report for 2008-09. In relation to that report, and the current arrangements that we are discussing here tonight, what is confirmed is that the Labor Party’s environmental credibility is now in tatters. We had a Labor Party that came to power claiming to have all the answers on climate change and the environment. But two years later the Prime Minister, Minister Penny Wong and Minister Garrett—who should not be there but still is—have delivered nothing. We have only had broken promises since they came to power.

Before I comment on the pink batts fiasco, which is not getting better but is actually getting worse, I want to remind the chamber and the public that this government, under Minister Wong and Mr Rudd, has established a special group within the Department of Climate Change, in which they are employing more than 150 public servants to ‘implement and administer’ the government’s ETS, at a cost of $81.9 million—despite the fact that no scheme currently exists because the parliament has twice rejected Mr Rudd’s flawed ETS. How absurd. I commend opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt. He said taxpayers were paying for the phantom, in a classic case of Rudd extravagance. He is right—it is a phantom, and it is a disgrace. It is a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money to have so many people doing not much within the department.

In terms of the pink batts debacle: yes, it keeps getting worse. We have seen today in the Senate the government refuse to say exactly how much it will cost to fix the pink batts fiasco and how long it will take. Minister Wong had the opportunity to respond; she did not. The waste and mismanagement under this government’s failed Home Insulation Program keeps getting worse. It is not getting better; it is getting worse. There are reports today that taxpayers will be forking out an estimated $100 million to remove foil insulation.