Fed: Abbott demands schools, batts inquiry

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-2010
Fed: Abbott demands schools, batts inquiry

By Bonny Symons-Brown and Peter Veness

CANBERRA, April 5 AAP - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd needs to launch a judicial inquiry
into his government's school halls and home insulation programs - or admit they were bungled,
the opposition says.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott used an otherwise quiet Easter Monday to renew his attack
on the federal government's economic stimulus plan.

The stimulus achieved its main objective of saving the economy from recession, but
not without creating major controversy.

Mr Abbott said the government's poorly designed and badly run Home Insulation Program
and Building the Education Revolution scheme, part of the second phase of Labor's fiscal
stimulus package, had wasted taxpayers' money.

He called for a judicial inquiry to be set up immediately to look into the two measures
and release a report by August.

"What's become obvious as the second stimulus package has unfolded is that it has involved
rip-off after rip-off," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.

The government suspended the Home Insulation Program after it was linked to the deaths
of four installers, 120 house fires, and thousands of safety and quality problems.

Meanwhile, the $16.2 billion school building scheme has been plagued by stories of
inflated quotes for projects, particularly in NSW.

Flanked by opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne and shadow legal affairs
minister George Brandis, Mr Abbott said he'd written to Mr Rudd to request the inquiry.

"The urgent establishment of a full judicial inquiry into these programs is therefore
necessary to restore public confidence," he wrote.

"Any failure to do so can only be interpreted as an admission that you have something to hide."

Mr Abbott said the public deserved to know whether proper procedures were followed
in relation to the programs, and if they were good value for money.

"It's very important that Australia avoid a recession, but even a cause as important
(as that) does not justify waste of taxpayers' money," he said.

Senator Brandis said the coalition did not believe political processes alone could
reveal the full scale of problems inherent in the school halls and pink batts schemes.

"The magnitude of the waste of public money in relation to these two failed programs
is so great that the forensic processes of a judicial inquiry are what it is going to
take to get to the bottom of it," he said.

Mr Abbott denied the move was a stunt, saying judicial inquiries had the power to compel
witnesses to give evidence.

His proposed terms of reference are to ask the inquiry to investigate, among other
things, the pricing components of the school building scheme and the design and implementation
of the Home Insulation Program.

The opposition also wants to know how the government responded to advice, including
warnings, it received about both initiatives.

AAP bsb/jl/de

KEYWORD: SCHOOLS WRAP

2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.