Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is an extraordinary situation here. I rise to take note of answers given by Minister Wong. As my very good colleague Senator Ryan referred to in his opening remarks, if it was not so very serious, it would be like a Monty Python skit. And it absolutely is. The government is like the Black Knight, acting with an air of confidence when everyone can see what a pathetic condition the government is in. This is just the most extraordinary situation that the government has got itself in: 100 house fires linked to the scheme and the government is going to have to pay for 50,000 homes with foil insulation to have it removed or have a safety switch installed. I note the minister said before that the government would be picking up the tab. It is taxpayers’ money. It is not the government’s money; it is the Australian people who are going to have to pick up the tab of what looks to be millions and millions of dollars for this bungled program.

It is very interesting that the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has said on ABC’s AM that the government does not know what the full cost will be and adjustments may be needed in the budget. He said, ‘Well, it will certainly be quite expensive, there’s no doubt about that.’ Well done, Einstein. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the cost to the Australian people from this bungle from the government. This government is completely inept. Twenty-one warnings this government got about the problems associated with this program. The Prime Minister confirmed on 21 January that they had indeed received 21 warnings. What sort of a government ignores 21 warnings for something like this, for a program for the Australian people? It is absolutely irresponsible of the government to act in that way when we are looking at a program like this that is being rolled out to millions of houses across the country. It is sort of like an episode of Lost in Space: ‘Warning, Will Robinson. Warning, Will Robinson.’ And they just did not listen.

It is simply an example of the systematic failure that we are seeing from this government to be able to deliver properly any kind of delivery for the people across this country. The spin over substance is unbelievable. You can almost see the Prime Minister when they were talking about this saying: ‘We have to get this rushed out. We have to get everything out there into the community straightaway. Don’t worry about the 21 warnings, we’ve got to get this out into these homes because we’re going to look really good when we do that.’ Well, they do not look very good now, because the Australian people have been watching this so closely, and what they are doing now is asking the question: how can the Rudd Labor government have got this so very wrong? As my good colleague Senator Ryan said, they are not even going to inspect all the homes. We have families in their homes now looking up at their ceilings that have had this insulation put in wondering if they are safe. The absolute primary responsibility of this government is to ensure that Australians are safe. To have rolled out a program like this, ignoring the warnings, is absolutely appalling.

What is very interesting to note is when all the heat was on and we saw, especially in the House of Representatives, questions being fired at the minister and fired at the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister ended up under a lot of pressure over this, and he still is. He was under a lot of pressure, and what did he do? ‘Oh, I’ll just whip out my new announcement for our health policy, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll pull that out of the back pocket and try and get the people of Australia to focus on something else.’ A bit of a weapon of mass distraction. But the people have not bought that distraction. They know how inept this government has been in this. What is occurring to them is that, if the government can get it so wrong on this program, if the government can be so inept in their delivery of this program, why on earth should they trust that they will be able to do anything else with any level of confidence at all? If they are so inept that they can end up with this result from this program affecting thousands of people right across the country, then how on earth, those people in Australia are saying, can we trust this government to get it right on anything else. They obviously simply cannot get it right. It is all spin, no substance; all talk, no action, and the Australian people are waking up to it.