Gen X Journey

We like to blame the government when things go wrong. Sometimes it’s a valid call, sometimes it’s a stretch. We’re told by journalists why it is the government’s fault and then had it spelt out differently by media commentators and bloggers.

So big things were expected of Mr Garrett when he won a federal seat in the last election. Finally there was a man of integrity and passion with the ear of Prime Minister. He’d talked the talk now he was going to walk the walk. Or not.

Four young men have died as a result of Peter Garrett’s insulation scheme. This scheme was rolled out to tick quite a few boxes.

• Inject some stimulus money into the Australian economy
• Look to be doing something green
• Give Garrett a job (he’s sort of had nothing to do since Penny Wong got the plum climate change ministry)

 Unfortunately all it has managed to do is give us four crosses, for that is the number of young men who died as a result of the ill-thought-out insulation scheme. That’s four mothers and fathers who no longer have their sons. Four young men who will never have their own families. And all they did was go to work.

Garrett was warned about the problems with insulation as early as October last year after the first death. Insulators were given only five hours training. The training that did not even become compulsory until December last year. Trained insulators are sent away with an insulation pack. This is not a gym. This is something that can be and has proven to be dangerous.

New Zealand banned the metal staples and foil insulation combination in 2007. Garrett mustn’t have read that bit of research in his haste to announce the insulation scheme, which even he admits needed i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

Frightening isn’t it how $3.7 billion of you tax payer money and young Australian lives can be tossed around before they even completed the paperwork. And that is how shonky operators who provided little or no staff training thrived in the industry. There was no quality assurance or control.

It’s not just the foil and metal death combination that is causing problems, for as well as causing loss of life, 48000 homes are potentially live and need to be audited (at a cost of $50million). I hope no one blows a light anytime soon.

I received 10 separate calls from insulation companies wanting to install insulation in my ceiling when this scheme was introduced. I’ve watched enough episodes of A Current Affair to know that if I put insulation batts around my downlights then a fire is highly likely. And guess what, there have been 86 house fires. Thank you A Current Affairfor giving me the information I needed to reject their offers, possibly saving my own family from a dangerous situation. It gets better though because the cheap imported batts are apparently loaded with formaldehyde, but Garrett doesn’t want to talk about that right now.

You know why? It’s because he’s currently on a road trip to Coffs Harbour, not at a high profile meeting attended by industry experts looking at ways to address this debacle.

I don’t know how Peter Garrett can sleep at night with such a heavy weight on his shoulders. Oh yes, that’s right, because he says none of it is his fault. And the cynic in me knows that even should he grow a conscience that he won’t resign because Prime Minister Rudd can’t afford to lose a high profile minister in this election year. Confidence inspiring or what?

I just hope somewhere out there there is a band of young people who will get together and write songs of protest because there’s a big gap to be filled. People all over Australia have destroyed their Midnight Oil albums as Peter Garrett proves that he is nothing but a hypocrite. Not me, I don’t have any Midnight Oil albums to destroy because personally I’ve always thought he was a wanker.

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