TAXPAYERS will foot the $50 million bill to help correct faults in the federal government's bungled $2.45 billion home insulation scheme.
After months of defending the scheme, which was suspended after being linked to 105 house fires and four deaths, the new minister in charge, Greg Combet, yesterday revealed further problems in the program, including fraud and job losses, The Australian reported.
In a 40-minute disclosure to parliament, Mr Combet admitted some of the warnings of fires and fraud given to the Department of Environment had proved correct.
To strip foil insulation from up to 50,000 houses or install electrical safety switches will cost taxpayers $50 million.
Left to clean up the political mess left after Peter Garrett was stripped of responsibility for the scheme following its suspension, Mr Combet cited fraud concerns about one insulation installer who did $9.6 million of work under the program and had three referrals to the Australian Federal Police.
As Mr Combet was addressing the House of Representatives, his senior minister, Penny Wong, was telling the Senate that the government's $175m green loans program was also beset with problems.
The Climate Change Minister, on the day of a historic address to the parliament by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said problems included $10m in incentives to householders that had not yet been paid, and a backlog of 100,000 environmental assessment reports still sitting with the government.
Both Mr Combet and Senator Wong were critical of the way the schemes had been managed under their predecessor, Peter Garrett, while declaring their resolve to fix the problems and punish the shonks.
In a warning to dodgy insulation installers, Mr Combet said: "As minister, let me assure all those who may have participated in non-compliant or fraudulent behaviour in connection with the home insulation program, that we will track you down."
However, opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt pointed out that the government had not agreed to check all 1.1 million homes insulated under the scheme.
Mr Hunt demanded to know how the government would find and fix 240,000 roofs feared to have safety or quality problems.
Mr Hunt also asked how much the clean-up operation would cost and how long it would take."The home insulation program was an example of systemic policy failure with the deepest human consequences," Mr Hunt told the parliament.
"Without a plan to examine all of the one million houses there is no solution to this problem."
For full story, see The Australian.
