Green nightmare

Revelations that 400,000 homes might have dodgy insulation should put the Rudd Government and specifically Environment Minister Peter Garrett under more pressure.

This scheme is now an official stuff up, with four deaths and numerous house fires (including the one revealed by SmartCompany last week) underlining the fact that Garrett has got this very, very wrong.

Today there have been further revelations that the Government’s much-vaunted solar panel rebate scheme is a dud, with claims from the Clean Energy Council that poor installation practices could put thousands more homes at risk of fire.

What stands out to me is that these programs have been set up too hastily. While the Rudd Government is usually accused of taking far too much time to make a decision – examples include its review of health, innovation, franchising and tax – the Government rushed to prove its green credentials by getting these programs set up as quickly as possible.

What they set up though were the circumstances for a stuff-up.

Businesses quickly realised that to get a piece of the Government’s green funds, all they had to do was ring households and convince them to take free or very cheap insulation or solar panels – not a very hard sell, given households always like something for nothing. The more people you could ring, the more installers you had on the ground, the more cash you could grab.

No wonder companies started to cut corners to get as many jobs done as possible. And without proper scrutiny or accreditation, no wonder the dodgy operators flooded in looking to get rich quick.

The shame of all this is that the insulation and solar panel rebate programs were actually a pretty good idea to give households practical assistance with cutting carbon emissions.

But instead of taking its time like it usually does, the Government put an inexperienced minister in charge of a program that just wasn’t thought through properly, with disastrous consequences.

Timing is everything, and the Government can’t seem to get its right at the moment.