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Home insulation: safety was overridden to meet 'horrendous' deadline Home insulation: safety overridden to meet Kevin Rudd's 'horrendous' deadline
(about 17 hours later)
Safety was compromised in the home insulation program to meet the Rudd government's "horrendous" rollout deadline, an inquiry has been told. Kevin Rudd's "horrendous" timeline for the home insulation program denied bureaucrats adequate time to consider safety risks, an inquiry has heard.
Public servants were given five months to devise the scheme, announced as an economic stimulus measure in February 2009. Public servants were given five months to devise the $2.8bn scheme. Safety considerations were overlooked as they scrambled to have it up and running by 1 July 2009, a royal commission has been told.
The bureaucrat charged with its delivery, Malcolm Forbes, has told a royal commission in Brisbane how getting the scheme up and running by July 1, 2009 overrode considerations of potential risks. The former deputy secretary of the Environment Department, Malcolm Forbes, who oversaw delivery, says potential risks would have been properly considered if time wasn't so tight.
Forbes said he had never – in his 33 years as a public servant – seen such a short period between the public announcement and rollout date of the home insulation program (HIP). The commissioner, Ian Hanger QC, asked what was "so magic" about July 1 2009. "That's what the prime minster wanted," Forbes replied.
"The HIP implementation timeline was horrendous," his statement to the inquiry said. Asked why nobody told Rudd it couldn't be done, Forbes said doing so would have gone against the public service culture, which was to remain positive and get the job done.
"Some compromises were made that left risks remaining to achieve the timeline." Forbes said he had raised concerns about the challenging deadline with the former co-ordinator general, Mike Mrdak. "We were flagging early that this was a significant challenge to us," he said.
A coronial inquest has already found the scheme's rushed rollout was a significant factor in the deaths of three young Queensland men. A coronial inquest has blamed the scheme's rushed rollout for the deaths of young Queenslanders Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes and Mitchell Sweeney. A New South Wales tradesman, Marcus Wilson, also died installing home insulation.
A NSW tradesman also died in the scheme, which has been blamed for more than 100 house fires. Forbes said he had never, in his 33 years as a public servant, seen such a short gap between a government program being announced and rolled out, as occurred with the home insulation program.
Forbes said he could not recall receiving advice about specific safety issues before the scheme's rollout, but knew working in roof cavities could be risky. In a statement to the inquiry he called the implementation timeline “horrendous". "Some compromises were made that left risks remaining to achieve the timeline."
Under cross-examination from counsel assisting Jonathan Horton, he agreed that considerations of potential risks would have had a higher priority if time was not such a key factor. The scheme wasn't fully implemented until September 2009 but even then inspections were happening slowly. Though 400,000 homes had been insulated by October, only 172 roof inspections had taken place.
Forbes, then second in charge of the environment department, said he raised his concerns about the challenging deadline with former co-ordinator general Mike Mrdak. The inquiry resumes on Friday.
"We were flagging early that this was a significant challenge to us," he told the inquiry.
Forbes said he was told the deadline would be achieved and it was up to him and the environment department to meet it.
Department staffers were relieved when they met the deadline, he said.
The inquiry in Brisbane before commissioner Ian Hanger QC continues.