PETER GARRETT has been demoted and stripped of his energy efficiency duties under a ministerial restructure designed to ease the pressure on the government caused by the bungled insulation program.

Despite standing firmly by Mr Garrett for more than a week and describing him as a first class minister, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, conceded the minister had failed and relieved him of responsibility for the insulation scheme, solar rebates and other energy-efficiency programs.

The programs will be handled by a new energy-efficiency department, to be annexed to the Department of Climate Change.

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Gus: when one develops a new program for whatever one needs to be aware of — or at least keep a close eye on — the pitfalls which may not be necessarily inherent to the program but to the greed of shonky instant operators who see a way to cream money from the government. Unlike the bleatings of Abbott and most of the media, the program was not "bungled"... as there are lots of very happy consumers who did not have any of the problems. It's common sense to keep insulation foil at a distance from electric wiring. It's common sense to suspect that in some older houses the wiring can be borderline. New guidelines need to be developed and like most products some ASO standards need to be applied. Insulation is better for the environment that having to run air conditioning at all times....

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says his Government deserves to get a "whacking" from voters in the next round of opinion polls.

A poll of New South Wales voters in today's Fairfax newspapers shows the Coalition is equal with Labor on a two-party preferred basis.

However, Mr Rudd remains the preferred prime minister at 53 per cent compared to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's 40 per cent.

The Government is dealing with a series of political problems.

Its home insulation program has been scrapped, its climate change policy is on hold and it is being criticised for delaying its response to major reviews of the health and taxation systems.

Mr Rudd says voters are making their frustration clear.

"I'm sure we'll take an even bigger whacking in the period ahead and the bottom line is I think we deserve it," he said.

"We are taking a pounding because we haven't been up to the mark so far.

"We are proud of what we have done on the economy last year in the face of everything happening around the world, but we are facing a different benchmark now."

Mr Rudd told the ABC's Insiders program that the Government needs to lift its game.

As is becoming obvious Gus, I believe that you have reasoned the situation well.

Firstly, the voters are expected to believe that Peter Garrett intentionally and incompentely forced the system into full gear for his own purposes.  Not so.

I believe that the Rudd government wanted to continue its excellent handling of the world financial cricise by putting into place a scheme that had two objectives - firstly to maintain employment for the working families and secondly to add to his intention to do all possible for reducing emmissions.

The latter totally opposed by an undemocratic Senate, who are elected by State and Territory but, have a vote as a Federal identity! Fair dinkum.

But it doesn't matter does it?  Will the media Barons again insultimg our intelligence with their attempt to make a "silk purse" out of a "sour's ear".

IMHO the basic principle of this American "democracy" is freedom -of what?

I don't want Australia to become just another "star" on the American flag.

God bless Australia and give us the guts to say no to crime. NE OUBLIE.

from the ABC

The public servant in charge of the Federal Government's failed home insulation scheme has denied claims made on ABC television that safety warnings were ignored.

The scheme was scrapped earlier this year after the deaths of four insulation installers and more than 100 house fires.

An Environment Department whistleblower told the ABC's Four Corners program that senior management had made it clear safety issues were a low priority.

"Job creation was the most important thing," the whistleblower said.

"That was mentioned on many occasions. We were told many times by senior management that the technical and safety issues were of less importance than getting this program up and running and creating jobs."

But department secretary Robyn Kruk told a Senate estimates hearing that is not the case.

"Increased requirement on training for operators in the industry was stressed from the start and also the subsequent modifications to the working environment were, I think, evidence of the fact the safety issues were always front of mind," she said.

Unions say employers have the ultimate responsibility to keep workers safe, not governments.

Central Queensland company Arrow Property Maintenance was yesterday fined $135,000 over the death of 16-year-old Rueben Barnes in November last year.

The teenager was electrocuted while installing insulation at a house near Rockhampton.

It was one of four fatalities linked to the Federal Government's axed insulation scheme.

The company says the Federal Government should shoulder some of the blame, but Craig Allen from the Queensland Council of Unions says it needs to stop passing the buck.

"As the court said, we're not in the industrial revolution era, we are in the 21st century," he said.

"There is an expectation of communities that workers come home alive after they go to work each day.

"We have had Workplace Health and Safety legislation in Queensland since 1995 - there are clear protocols in that legislation of what the responsibilities of employers are in this state.

"Do not blame federal governments, blame yourselves."

How refreshing to be made aware of the exoneration of the Rudd/Garret insulation deaths - but in Your Democracy only!!!  I have surfed the MSM and cannot find even a cursory mention of an issue in which "squeaky" Greg Hunt and the "Mad Monk" Abbott accused the Rudd Labor government, especially Peter Garret, of gross depraved indifference which quickly took on the Murdoch Media's frenzied claims of “virtual murder”.

The suffering of Peter Garret and his family can only be imagined, not only for the deaths that marred his otherwise well planned program but also for the disgraceful and unsubstantiated accusations (under the protection of Parliamentary privilege) of the Coalition gutless wonders led by Abbott and Hunt.  

Of course with credibility at an all-time low, the News Ltd. opinion writers will surely apologize for the false and intended misjudgement of the accidental deaths due to the lack of care by shonky business practices? The conservatives consistently demonstrate their lack of care for the working families and merely concentrate on disrupting government and "ferociously destroying" Labor for anything that goes wrong anywhere at any time.

The effect of the judgement clearly indicates that the "innocent until proved guilty" does NOT apply to the conservative born to rule Coalition and their partners in the Murdoch Corporation’s media. 

But what it does do is that which every unionist in Australia already knows - the environment safety of workers is primarily the responsibility of the employer.  The gloves to be worn - the helmets - the positioning of safety equipment and structures, are all supplied by the employer by law.  In fact there are stringent penalties to enforce them to do so - very reluctantly.

It confirms what we have written in this forum that the chain of events by necessity,  provided each level of the program with its own responsibilities and duty of care.  Even to the workers themselves and any responsible home owner as well.

It will be interesting now to see if this false accusation which gave the tabloid front pages a field day when it was played out for “yonks” – will now be equally trumpeted as cowardly attack on an innocent government. Or in fact, will any of the previously “holier than thou” journalists - who so wantonly persecuted Peter Garret now apologize or - even better - ask Abbott and Hunt OUTSIDE Parliament if they care to apologize or will they again make their accusations without privilege?

Garret is back to the surprise of the vindictive media.  Good luck to him.

NE OUBLIE.

Federal National Party leader Warren Truss has attacked insurer QBE for refusing a claim after a Queensland house fire was linked to the scrapped home insulation scheme.

Mr Truss says a couple and their six children lost their home in 2009, just three hours after a company installed ceiling insulation at Tiaro, south of Maryborough in southern Queensland.

He told Parliament the house was not insured but work done by the insulation company was covered by QBE Insurance.

Mr Truss says there is enough evidence showing the likely cause of the blaze was the insulation work, but QBE is refusing to compensate the family.

"Only a cold-hearted, uncaring, ruthless, out-of-touch multinational corporation could treat a poor battling family like this," he said.

"I am disgusted with QBE and again I appeal to the company to reconsider their rejection of [the] claim and help this family to get a new start.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-02/truss-fires-up-at-insurer-rejecting-house-claim/3614260

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Rubbish... So what has Mr Truss going to say about Mr Joyce and Qantas who are cold-hearted, uncaring, ruthless, out-of-touch multinational corporation could treat a poor battling traveller like this... The whole Truss/Abbott shebang is only designed to implicate the Labor Government in the "cold and heartless insurance companies" with a "failed insulation scheme". The insulation scheme was a success apart from very few shonks who exploited the scheme for their own pockets... Of over 1 million homes insulated, only 400 or so developed problems and only a few had quite serious problems. Many of the happy people whose homes were insulated have claimed energy savings of up to 30 per cent. From an insurance company point of view, there are many reasons that could have come to play in this fire. And there would have been a thorough investigation.

Was the electrical wiring up to modern standard?

Was the insulation installer at fault?

Was the house in good condition

Was the weather responsible

Was there foul play

Was there any other sources that could have started the fire

Has the house fire really been linked to the insulation, as claimed by the ABC and Truss?

It's not my role to defend insurance companies, far from it, but there would be a large file on what happened and it looks as if Truss did not look at the file nor its findings... We need far more from Truss that just an opinion, we need him to show us the paperwork from the investigation.

I get very suspicious of "opposition" members when they raise such issues without proper proof in hand, while their other hand is on their bleeding heart...

The insurance company could pay up but disclaim responsibility of the insured party. But that is not possible. Thus the insured party, the installer, might sue the insurance for "his good reputation" being pulled through the mud by being misrepresented as "negligent" or "at fault"— should the installer claim that there was no negligence and everything was done by the book AAA... Meanwhile QBE could really make life uncomfortable for Truss for dragging their good name in the mud as well... And also look at his porfolio of shares in the insurance industry, there could be a conflict of interest...

QBE might decide to pay out of its own pocket as a public relation exercise... That is another story.

I have done quite a bit of home insulation using heavy duty aluminium foil, batts and strong metal staples... No problem... One has to know of course that one does not staple anything through electrical wiring... Simple enough? As well one does not do any such work when there is an electrical storm around or the potential of such... Simple enough?... The job of the government is to give the job to the public service to instruct employers to follow proper procedures in the implementation of the scheme. The scheme worked as more than one million houses were insulated — with only 400 houses with some fixable problems and the few deaths in Queensland, mostly due to shoddy work practices by some employers who should have known better...

Blaming the then government on this issue and claiming that the scheme was badly implemented — a scheme amongst others that saved Australia from a bad recession with the effects of the GFC — smells of Queensland-ish political bias, big time...