It was a debacle.

Peter Hume
Tthere is no "if it was done by a private corporation". The rortting was 'done' by the private contractors not the Government. The Government's failure was in ensuring the program was delivered with all the appropriate checks and balances and with money invested in placing enough people on the ground to oversight the installations.

What we ended up with was a bunch of fly-by-nighter would-be insulation 'experts' and defrauders who by some reports did not even put in insulation but banged around a bit in the roofspace of some poor old lady who knew no better, many of them foreign owned short-term money makers.

Accountability does not only apply to Government but to the private sector - the trick is in getting those mechanisms right which is absolutely the role of Government and where they failed in this case.

Protagoras:>> Once again we witness an author duck-shoving the market's failure onto an inexperienced government whose intentions were for the common good.<<

Pro, short sighted good intentions aside, they failed to spend our money in a cost effective manner. Then the government failed to react to overwhelming negative outcomes happening daily in the suburbs of Australia.

This is the Batts fiasco to my mind as I watched it unfold.

The govt gives UP TO $1600 for insulation, all jobs miraculously now cost that $1600 plus extra from the home owner if exceeded. That concerned me.

Ongoing reports of poor work quality and dangerous work practices, batts are being placed over existing batts and electrical cables. That concerned me.

Dumped batts now start to show up regularly on the sides of our roads and "boys" driving shabby vans and utes with no company logo or contact numbers now ply the streets packed with batts. That concerned me.

Six months in and the rebate falls to $1200, all jobs now cost $1200. Summer has arrived, and the first death of a teen in a roof, then a second. That concerned me.

House fires due to poor work practices now occur. Houses fitted with foil backed insulation must all be inspected. That concerned me.

Ten months later they shut it down, I could see major concerns in the first three months, and by the sixth I knew it was a farce. How is it not the governments fault?

Two guys one ute three jobs and you make $2000 a day. I am truly sorry that I did not see it for the scam it was earlier, all I had to do was buy a ute, I had the other requisites, two arms and two legs.

nairbe,

No, the Building Code, Australian Standards and manufacturer's installation guides have no force whatsoever in law. As I have explained and it is correct, even specifications written into the contract does not cause the builder to comply with them because when push comes to shove, the builder will do what is required by law.

No, inspections during the construction are rendered worthless simply because the builder cannot be required to amend anything, even a very obvious and detrimental swap of cheaper materials (eg dura-coated or painted steel in exposed weather in lieu of formally specified hot dip galvanised). The builder will simply say that the building is under completion, full stop and bugger off.

At fault are building 'standards' that are NOT Standards because they are unenforceable, they have no force whatsoever at law. Also at fault is the reactive rather than proactive, regulation of the building industry. In reality and for all practical purposes the home building industry is self-regulating, to the detriment of vulnerable consumers.

Fact is, it is only political opportunism that presently encourages the opposition to be interested in the insulation debacle. The LNP like the government presided over a corrupt building industry for decades and they, like the government, have scant concern for the unnecessary financial and safety risks of home owners, they are just playing politics as per usual.

More superstitious liturgy.

Accountability doesn’t apply at all to the government. Have they accounted to you for how much of your money they spent on the pink batts scheme? Has anyone responsible for wasting billions paid any personal cost?

The reason why the ‘cowboys’ were there, was because the people dispensing the money weren’t taking care to get value for money, because the money wasn’t theirs, because the government had taken it in the first place. If it had been left to what people would voluntarily offer and accept, the entire fiasco would never have happened, which was the situation before the government did it.

It is another blatant lie to say that the home building market is under-regulated. It is covered by literally countless regulations. It is subject to environmental planning laws, regulations and policies, LEPs, building codes, extra codes for compliance with environmental standards, occupational health and safety laws, regulations and policies, industrial relations laws, regulations and policies, compulsory occupational licensing, compulsory insurances, compulsory inspectorates, compulsory standards, administrative reviews, you name it, and multiple interventions from every one of three layers of government.

Only government could possibly direct such important work (omniscience, omnipotence). But the government has no responsibility when anything goes wrong (immaculate conception; infallibility; benevolence). Without government blowing billions of other people’s money on nutty pink batt schemes we would all revert to a state of barbarism (?). The clerical hierarchy have perfect knowledge of what should be done (perfection)– it’s just that the serfs and mundanes keep mucking up the divine plan (original sin). But more of what didn’t work last time – regulations - is the only thing that could possibly fix the problem next time (corporal punishment as holy mortification).

This is just nutty superstition; impervious to evidence and reason.

Then when you point out that the belief is unfalsifiable, do they respond by showing how the belief is falsifiable? No. They just keep *repeating* the original creed.

It’s like:
“Don’t you think this burning witches caper is a bit superstitious?”

“Heretic! The man communes with the devillll!”

Yes but Peter how is the private sector any different. What accountability do they hold, we can't even vote them out at an election if they err or defraud us or if some executive defrauds us of our funds and moves to warmer climes.

"It’s like:
“Don’t you think this burning witches caper is a bit superstitious?”

“Heretic! The man communes with the devillll!”

Speaking of superstition. Your quotations could be equally coined in response to those who espouse highly libertarian, free market ideology who blindly believe in the 'natural' mechanisms of the marketplace to determine wholly the wellbeing and rights of citizens and stability of nations.

Governments are by no means perfect but lets not hold blind faith that the alternative would be any better. Governments fail when they forget they are put in place by citizens for the citizens not to rule in their own right.

You are lying. It is not irrational to think the private sector can produce things economically. All the revenue of the state comes from confiscated private property. So private property is both logically and factually precedent and necessary for the existence of the state.

On the other hand, if were true that the state has the competence to regulate the building industry, then the only rational conclusion is that they failed and the problem was government.

Government is not accountable at all, because even if you vote against them, you are still forced to pay for their schemes just as much as if you had voted in favour. (In fact, you're more liable to pay, because the people who won't have to pay are more likely to vote to force others to pay).

All the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for all the waste not only don't pay any personal costs, they get *rewarded*, as I pointed out, and you religiously ignored.

And even if the government gets voted out, the next government, like the old one, is not accountable to any person forced to pay for the "service". The laws of fraud do not apply to them. They can lie and break promises all they like.

The private sector is accountable in profit and loss. All the defective performance that was normally loss-making, and would send the company broke, became profitable under the government's scheme. This is entirely the result of the fact that it was a government scheme.

Your belief system could only make sense if the government was able to run the whole economy, which is a religious fantasy with no basis in evidence or reason.

Partial socialism is only possible because of the existence of the private sector it parasitizes.