Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is becoming more absurd every time he attacks the Home Insulation Program (HIP).
The latest examples were his exaggerated claims about the HIP on November 24, 2011 in the House of Representatives and his January 31, 2012 address to the National Press Club.
In introducing “a definite matter of public importance” for discussion in the House of Representatives on November 24, 2011 (the last sitting day for the year) he said:
“There were the pink batts that this government could not put into roofs for free without houses catching fire right around Australia”. (Page 13819 of Hansard for 24 November 2011.) Abbott told the National Press Club on January 31, 2012:
“No good government would ever spend more than a billion dollars putting pink batts into roofs and a billion dollars to take them out again.” The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency provides
statistics (current at December 31, 2011 for most and at November 30, 2011 for others) on the HIP on its website.
Using official statistics from this source (as at November 30, 2011) and tables in the
CSIRO Risk Profile Analysis on page 86 of its report on the HIP), I have constructed the following table to provide a State and Territory breakdown of confirmed fires due to HIP insulation:
|
Location
|
Confirmed fires
|
Structural damage
|
Total insulated
|
Fire %
|
|
Victoria
|
109
|
13
|
270,431
|
0.04
|
|
NSW
|
66
|
7
|
448,192
|
0.02
|
|
Queensland
|
26
|
3
|
268,275
|
0.01
|
|
W. Australia
|
14
|
3
|
62,020
|
0.02
|
|
S. Australia
|
5
|
2
|
37,956
|
0.01
|
|
ACT
|
4
|
2
|
5,014
|
0.08
|
|
NT
|
0
|
0
|
2,202
|
–
|
|
Tasmania
|
0
|
0
|
14,061
|
–
|
|
TOTALS
|
224
|
30
|
1,108,151
|
0.02
|
No fires in 99.98 per cent of insulated homes A total of 224 confirmed fires for 1,108,151 homes with non-foil insulation means that 1,107,927 (99.98 per cent) of such homes had no confirmed fires. That’s hardly
“...houses catching fire right around Australia”. Using the key statistics link previously given, there were 237,583 homes (46,551 with foil and 191,032 non-foil) that had safety inspections. This represents 20.2 per cent of the 1,178,089 homes insulated) under the HIP. Those figures demonstrate the nonsense of Abbott’s statement that
“No good government would ever spend more than a billion dollars putting pink batts into roofs and a billion dollars to take them out again.” Of the 1,178,089 homes insulated with foil or non-foil under the HIP, 46,891 (4.2 per cent) had work undertaken to make them safe.
(Note: The 1,108,151 figure is that used by the CSIRO report while the 1,178,089 figure includes both foil and non-foil insulation. The December 31, 2011 figures by the Department of Climate Change and Energy comprise 1,119,808 non-foil insulations, or 11,657 more than the CSIRO figure, and 58,281 foil insulations.)
Neither Abbott nor his Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage, Greg Hunt, has ever thought reality should intrude on their crass war against the HIP.
Plethora of inquiries For example, Hunt called for a Royal Commission during a speech in the House of Representatives on June 16, 2010 (Hansard, House of Representatives, June 16, 2010, Pages 5560-5563) even though one inquiry had already reported, another inquiry was imminent and still another (also sought by Hunt) announced. They were:
• The Government-commissioned report by Dr Allan Hawke, released some two months earlier on April 6, 2010.
• A Senate committee inquiry into the HIP (with the Coalition Senators in a majority) was set up on October 29, 2009 and was a little over four weeks from bringing down its delayed report (originally due on June 21, 2010) on July 15, 2010.
• A Federal Auditor-General audit of the HIP announced on March 3, 2010. The Auditor- General noted in his report (released on October 15, 2010) that Hunt had made “a number of requests” before March 3, 2010 for such an audit (Paragraph 19 of Summary on page 25 of the Auditor-General Audit Report No. 12 2010–11 Performance Audit of the Home Insulation Program).
Unsafe work practices It is easy to see why Hunt found the Hawke report unacceptable. It contained such findings as:
•
“Any objective assessment of the HIP will conclude that, despite the safety, quality and compliance concerns, there were solid achievements against the program objectives. At the time the program closed on 19 February 2010, over one million homes had been insulated.”
• “The associated political wrangling has overshadowed the duty of care of employers, which, put simply, is a requirement that they do everything reasonably practicable to ensure a safe working environment. While determining the causes of deaths and serious safety hazards and any liability for these is a matter for coroners and work safety agencies, clearly there would seem to have been some unsafe work practices by employers operating under the HIP.” The comment about unsafe work practices was highlighted in the Daily Telegraph report of the death of Marcus Wilson, 19, on November 20, 2009 after collapsing while installing insulation in western Sydney. The newspaper said the temperature was an estimated 60C in the roof in which Wilson was working. It also reported that other installation contractors
“said they had sent workmen home at 10.30am as the temperature soared to 42.1C – just short of the November 1982 record of 42.2C.” Industrial Magistrate John McGrath also drew attention to work safety when fining Arrow Maintenance a total of $135,000 over charges relations to the electrocution death of Reuben Barnes, 16, while moving insulation into place in a home at Stanwell, near Rockhampton, on November 18, 2009. McGrath noted that the company was derelict in its duty and denounced unsafe working practices saying the world had moved beyond the unsafe practices of the Industrial Revolution.
No justification advanced for inquiry But back to Huntʼs June 16 speech, which occurred after the procedural requirements were satisfied to allow for
“a definite matter of public importance” to be discussed, namely
“the Governmentʼs continued failure to address the consequences of the Home Insulation Program”. In this speech, Hunt did not detail any justification for a Royal Commission, merely saying in his closing sentence:
•
“Against that background these things are evident: first, every home must be inspected and the failure to do so is gross and systemic negligence; second, small businesses must be helped; and, third, there must be a royal commission. Hunt was very big on the need for inspections during his speech, saying:
•
“So it must be made absolutely clear that every home should be inspected. Every home has to be inspected.”
• “Let us be clear. Against that background there is only one answer: every home must be inspected, every home must be subject to the protections that have been recommended and the warnings given by the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade, the national Electrical and Communications Association and the Electrical Trades Union. These warnings are from the people who know and they should not be dismissed.” From these repetitious comments, you could think Hunt was serious in his demand that every home be inspected. But, as it turns out he and Abbott were no more serious about this than in holding a Royal Commission if they won government.
It certainly would not have come as any surprise to Abbott or Hunt that the first recommendation of the July 15, 2010 report of the Senate committee, chaired by South Australian Liberal Senator Mary Jo Bishop, was for a Royal Commission into the HIP.
Thus, the top priority of the Opposition majority on a committee that had lasted some six months and received 53 submissions was for yet another inquiry into the HIP.
In this first part of a two-part series, I have used official statistics to demonstrate how absurdities abound in the crass war on the HIP by Tony Abbott and his henchman Greg Hunt. In the second part I will explore Abbott’s amazing amnesia about his own statements and provide further examples of inconsistencies and false claims by the Opposition on the HIP.