When money is thrown into the air, as Rudd has been doing, and many governments before him, there is a rush to grasp as much of it as possible.

People lie and cheat, and not just the politicians, to get at this 'free' dosh.

Garrett no doubt was 'advised' to 'let it rip'.

That's is what the ALP and the Coalition believe in... the 'free' market, with no contsraints, or as few as possible without making it too obvious that tax monies are being handed to a few greedy, and in this case, dangerous, fools.

The insulation program, the green loans program, even the first home owners grant, all make problems worse not better.

Haste and politics drove Garret's failure.

His 'advisors' should be 'let go' even if he remains but it is clear that he cannot be trusted to run a chook raffle from here-on.

And for those bleating about 'our brave boys' we are always hearing how 'safety' is overlooked in the forces.... so do give it a rest please.

Why assume that everyone drives a car just to sit in if it rains?

The problem as i see it is the shortage of pink bats. So the insulators are using a product that was not designed for it's use.
The insulation is stuck to aluminium foil, then stapled down, consequently spearing the electric cables.
When my insulation went in it was pink bats ten inches thick, no aluminium and no staples.
I doubt if Garret would have known what dodgy insulators were using.
The insulating blanket used is for lagging, or the underside of roofing, not ceiling insulation.

Stange that New Zealand in 2007 banned stapples and also knew of the dangers with this type of insulation. So where was garrett, well just like at the moment out bush instead of meetings with the unions and electrical standards.

Also we are up to about 180 house firs from this scheme.

How can garrett sleep when beds are burning and people are dying.

It shows just how much a hypocrite he is and the unions for not ensuring appropriate training was carried out.

Garrett backed by rudd
Nothing from combet who now runs and hides instead of ensuring workers are protected.

Come on the federal election.

Shadow Minister: "He was notified by the electrician's union that there were legitimate safety issues with the installation of foil insulation, and instead of taking immediate action and stopping the use of foil he "negotiated" with the unions for a compromise"

So he is told by one mob "look - this stuff is dangerous". And they are probably right too. I get up in my roof, and the thought of having a conductive sheet over the light fittings gives me the willies.

But the insulation industry were almost certainly telling Garret the stuff is safe, and the electricians are just whining. There is a good reason to use aluminium. Aluminium bats are the most effective kind there is, with an astounding R6.4 rating. Just a single aluminium sheet adds 1 or so to the R rating of any insulation product, and its real cheap to do. And it isn't irritating like fibre glass, and aluminium bats are drop dead easy to transport because they pack flat. If the electricians do their job properly and wire the house safely, those 3 layer aluminium bats are by far the best to have.

So who are you going to believe? Remember the insulation industry been around for a long while. 2 of the deaths occurred while installing pink bats. They have been installing bats (pink or otherwise) for something like 50 years. Ever heard of any outcries over them being death traps in that time? Didn't think so. So here we have one set of tradies whining over what another mob had been doing for 50 years without apparent incident. And remember, insulation - particularly fibre glass, makes life rather unpleasant for the sparkies. It is enough to make anyone whinge.

In retrospect the industry obviously needs to pick up its act. OH&S is a state responsibility, isn't it? No doubt this will cause them to act. In any case, the industry practices had nothing to do with Garret. He was assured they were safe by the industry, and since there was no hard evidence to the contrary acted on that basis.

As I tried to communicate in another thread on the subject [Rudd and Garretts Incompetence Costs Lives], the problem goes way beyond a few crook jobs by some dodgy insulation installers.

The deficiencies that have already come to light should be red flags for everyone concerned that there are serious systemic problems in the home building industry. Sadly, both government and the building industry have a vested interest in keeping the lid on any attempts to drill down further to discover the causes rather than symptoms of deficiencies.

To take an example, in the last house we had built, the specifications required sarking to be extended to all exterior walls. However, later independent electrical inspection found that the electrical contractor had not installed the rear covers on power points in walls. This could easily have resulted in electrocution where the sarking came into contact with the exposed wiring.

This was only one of a number of problems. Why did we suspect there could be deficiencies? Well, because the rear of a power point within several centimetres of the ceiling access hatch in the garages was exposed- poor placement and no cover. The bare wiring was where anyone entering from a ladder would place his hand and someone nearly did.

Of course Garrett should resign, that is what the doctrine of ministerial accountability is all about. Any mildly competent risk analysis performed to support the minister's decision on the insulation policy would have identified the obvious risks in the building industry such as lack of available skills, poor training and supervision of work and even poorer QA practices (non existent). It is ridiculous to pretend that the government's inspection requirements would have been effective in countering any of the known risks.

Notwithstanding any of this casualness by the minister and his department, I have no doubt that the minister will continue to receive his high remuneration and his senior bureaucrats will get their usual bonuses.

Ministerial accountability? Not bloody likely!

Either one or two of the deaths were heat stroke on very hot days.
It seems to me that if the attraction for the fly by nighters was
even thought about, contracts should have been restricted to those
companies already in the business 12 months before the act.

Right at the beginning there was mention in the media about the danger
of placing insulation over downlight fittings.
However it is not just the fittings but the transformers.
I wonder if that distinction is being made even now ?