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Home Insulation Debacle

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Rudd last night;

"Plainly this particular program has been implemented ineffectively and you've got problems. In our system I am responsible for the lot of it."

He obviously learned this while working for Beatty. The next step is to apply a few bandaids (courtesy of the taxpayer) and move on...until the next stuff-up hits the fan.

Beatty was replaced by a woman from the Left, who turned out to be a disaster. The Caucus will have to remove Rudd. Their only alternative is Gillard also from the Left. She is the darling of the unions. If she makes decisions they don't like they will turn on her in the same way as they have turned on Bligh. Most of the Caucus are beholden to the unions for selecting them.
 
I wonder whether our overall long period of economic growth has overseen a decline in the quality of government at both a federal and state level and question whether politicians have any awareness of this.
 
drsmith said:
I wonder whether our overall long period of economic growth has overseen a decline in the quality of government at both a federal and state level and question whether politicians have any awareness of this.
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Reminds me of comment that during bull market a lot of accidental traders think of themselves as gifted geniuses, could probably draw comparison here.

Almost irrespectively of inferior management they still manage to do something right.
 
Aussiejeff said:
Combet just got promoted in his place
Just what's needed. A union head-basher should sort this lot out, eh? ROFLMAO.
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Combet once said that the unions used to run this country, and it's about time they did it again. His strength is in harassing employers...not helping them to get back on their feet.

Garrett can now get back to what he does best...looking for rare animals that he can use as a weapon to stop development.
 
Cant say Im suprised.
Cant say I feel sorry for Garrett.
Cant say the new guy will do any better.
Cant say this actually solves any issues what so ever.
 
After a week of listening to Rudd saying he is rolling his sleeves up, Combet now says he is going to roll his sleeves up. A true follower. He will go far. Perhaps Garrett never rolled his sleeves up. I now foreshadow a contest between front benchers on sleeve rolling up.
 
The interesting thing about this is that the insulation industry pretty much collapsed overnight when they got rid of the funding.

I wonder how the housing market would react when they remove the grants?
 
What does this demotion of Garrett actually say about how Mr Rudd perceives his position?

Was he so taken aback by Kerry O'Brien's attack last night on the 7.30 Report that he figured he needed to get one of his minions in the hot seat again, rather than display his own vulnerability?

That's how I interpret Mr Combet's elevation.

I couldn't stand Garrett, but if it's possible I loathe Combet even more. He is a union hack of the worst order. Garrett's worst sin was his naivete and ignorance, lack of political skills really. Mr Combet suffers from none of these problems.
 
The story from the Brisbane Times...

Mr Garrett will be the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts.

Mr Rudd said Mr Garrett’s passion lay with the protection of Australia’s natural resources and his reduced range of responsibilities would be more suited to him.

Under the changes announced by Mr Rudd, Mr Combet will be given the direct responsibility for the troubled insulation program.
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I'd say Garret simply had too much responsibility for a new poly. This change should suit him to regroup for another day, maybe.

Probably Combet got thrown in there to use his contacts to 'sort out' the outspoken union criticism of the gov.
 
Whiskers said:
The story from the Brisbane Times...



I'd say Garret simply had too much responsibility for a new poly. This change should suit him to regroup for another day, maybe.

Probably Combet got thrown in there to use his contacts to 'sort out' the outspoken union criticism of the gov.
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Of course, being a fully accountable gummint, Mr Garrot will be forced to take a substantial pay and allowances cut, having been "demoted" and now effectively just a minor employee of the KRuddCo juggernaut with greatly reduced responsibilities?

Yeah. I must be batty to even contemplate "value for taxpayer's money"!! :angry:
 
Dowdy said:
The interesting thing about this is that the insulation industry pretty much collapsed overnight when they got rid of the funding.
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That's the single biggest problem facing the whole renewable energy and energy efficiency industry. It's constantly being thrown from one extreme to the other by government.

Wind farms - one minute it's a goer, the next it's not, now it is again. All due to constant meddling with policy. Even stage government owned developers can't come to grips with what's going on - on again, off again, on again...

Same with solar on houses. Slow growth, then a boom, then a collapse, now it's sort of going again.

Same with insulation. A viable industry existed before, then it became a government-fuelled boom sucking in imports, now it has collapsed literally overnight.

Investors will stay well away from Australia whilst such things continue. It's the sort of risk you normally expect to find in a Third World backwater, not a supposedly developed country.:2twocents
 
Smurf1976 said:
That's the single biggest problem facing the whole renewable energy and energy efficiency industry. It's constantly being thrown from one extreme to the other by government.

...............

Investors will stay well away from Australia whilst such things continue. It's the sort of risk you normally expect to find in a Third World backwater, not a supposedly developed country.:2twocents
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Another good post there Smurf.

No wonder our smart solar thinkers are setting up in China and the US. What hope have they of getting funding from venture caps. We are already behind the 8 ball with the large physical size and small population of Oz and Govnuts luv riding in and playing the great white Knight but end up just F'ing it up.
 
I would have thought that for the funding of renewable energy/energy sustainability, the logical starting point would be what gives the best bang for buck.

This is something our politicians seem to have long forgotten (or ignored).
 
Came across a story in Sydney Morning Herald this morning that adds some new perspectives to the home insulation "debacle".

For example one of the big concerns we have had has been the fear that at least some of the insulation jobs will result in more ceiling fires and live roofs. Guess what ? These problems have always existed in what has been a very unregulated industry to date. Worth a read to give another perspective on the picture.

Insulation fire risk was worse before rebate

......So, nearly 12 months on, what did the program deliver? Surprisingly, it appears to have made insulation installation safer (thank you to blogsite Pollytics.com for detailing this and examples of misreporting).

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that 61 per cent of dwellings, almost 3.2 million, had insulation in 2008, with 98 per cent of these having roof or ceiling insulation.

Officials in Garrett's department told a Senate committee hearing that the pre-program rate of installations was 65,000 to 70,000 a year, with 80 to 85 insulation-related fires a year. Roughly 30 per cent were linked to new installations, on industry estimates. The program insulated more than 1.1 million homes. If 94 fires have been linked to this, the implication is that the fire risk was roughly four times lower than before, even as the number of installations rose fifteenfold.

As for the four deaths of installers, one of them through heat exhaustion and another using foil insulation that Garrett had barred from the program months earlier, they are subject to coronial inquiries. The fact is, however, that the program introduced the first national training program for installers. Remember, this is a field in which foolhardy householders have a long DIY tradition and the insulation industry had been largely unregulated. Where was the concern about safety then?

If the program has proved anything, it is that Australia abounds with shonky businesses, ''she'll be right'' tradesmen, hypocritical politicians who habitually sacrifice workplace safety on the altar of business-friendly policy, and careless, pack-hunting journalists. And that, I'm afraid, is not much of a revelation at all.
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http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/polit...sk-was-worse-before-rebate-20100303-pivv.html
 
basilio said:
Came across a story in Sydney Morning Herald this morning that adds some new perspectives to the home insulation "debacle".

For example one of the big concerns we have had has been the fear that at least some of the insulation jobs will result in more ceiling fires and live roofs. Guess what ? These problems have always existed in what has been a very unregulated industry to date. Worth a read to give another perspective on the picture.



http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/polit...sk-was-worse-before-rebate-20100303-pivv.html
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What a big leap there in labor spin support from the article.
By stuffing up we made the industry safer.:rolleyes:
The big companies that were around before the grant did have guidelines. It was in their interest to do the job right or go bust. With the introduction of the grant it was just a free for all race to make as much money as you could. Guys that have never been near the industry before were pumping the crap in.

There has always been shonks and this whole incident brought them all out. We now have cheap Chinese crap jammed in the roof and decimated the legit guys work/supply and reputation. I'd be pi$$ed
In 6 months we have produced how many unsafe roofs. Yeah there were shonks round before but they were lucky to get 1-2 jobs a week, and even then people cottoned on when it was there own money. They may have been doing 2-4 jobs a day after the grant along with thousands of other bodgy blokes. This program was a total stuff up.
 
What a big leap there in labor spin support from the article.
By stuffing up we made the industry safer.
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I think it's worth reading the article in total and the back up information from the website that is quoted before dismissing it entirely.

No doubt there was poor administration and the fact was that trying to get such a scheme going at the rate Cabinet demanded was a critical factor. There is no industry on the world that would not stuff up either small time or big time if there is totally insufficient time to plan or it is advanced too quickly.

What was interesting in the article, and probably not widely understood, was that there were numerous instances of fires related to insulation before the scheme began. I suspect many were due to the new proliferation of halogen lights that are absolute nightmares as far as starting fires. And it would have been very difficult for many houseowners to inspect the insulation jobs done by tradesmen to ensure it was done properly. So in retrospect it isn't surprising to realise there were some poor practices already in the industry. (like most others.)

The main point of the story was explaining that poor jobs have always occurred in installing insulation and that, on the face of it, there doesn't seem to have been a huge extra jump in such cases caused by the insulation program.

But Peter Costello and co are hardly likely to accept that arn't they? Not when there is a Labour head to kick...
 
basilio said:
But Peter Costello and co are hardly likely to accept that arn't they? Not when there is a Labour head to kick...
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Rudd too. After all, it was he who demoted Garrett.

So if things are no worse than before and perhaps slightly better, why all the mea culpas?
 

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