OF LETHAL PINK BATTS AND OTHER FANTASIES

The Royal Commission into Kevin Rudd’s insulation scheme should, if it is real deal, uncover the truth of the whole affair. In which case, Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett are likely to have a lot less to fear than Tony Abbott thinks he has political points to gain. Here are some fundamental facts, in case News Ltd forgets to include them in its hysterical coverage:

1.It was a good idea. Australian homes need insulating, and this was a way of reducing householders’ energy bills, greenhouse emissions, at the same time as creating economic stimulus.

2.It’s been done well before. The UK had a similar scheme, with no deaths, and great benefit to all parties.

3.The building industry is administered by the sates. Under the Constitution (remember that thing?) the States are responsible for land use planning and development, trades and building. So regulating the installers is a state government responsibility, and any failure of trades on site falls at the feet of state ministers. Therefore we should expect the RC to call all state ministers, as well the industry trades associations.

4.The building industry is a dangerous industry. The rate of deaths (each tragic and utterly avoidable) needs to be compared to the ‘normal’ rate of deaths in the industry. If the community thinks this is unacceptably high, steps should be taken. But don’t then complain about more nanny state red tape, roof anchors, ladder safety regulations or extension lead tagging.

5.The Federal Government at the time should have had the collective wisdom to anticipate the flood of unqualified cowboys into the market. Apparently Garrett warned Cabinet but was over-ruled by Rudd and Swan, who wanted to “get the money out into the economy without delay”. But the ultimate administration of the cowboys was not done by the states.

6.Royal Commissions have never had access to Cabinet documents in 94 years. Cabinet is considered to be the ultimate private chamber for thrashing out ideas and policies without fear or favour. Both sides of politics have honoured that principle, until now. As means of political point scoring, Tony Abbott is (at time of writing) intending to make all the relevant cabinet documents available to the RC. That may be ok in principle – transparency is a good thing. But done once, it will always be done. And that should be giving him serious pause for thought – what goes around invariably comes around.