Another damning indictment of the Government’s management of environmental programs has been released today, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today.
 
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) today released* its Performance Audit Report into Labor’s failed $300 million Green Loans Program.
 
“The ANAO has confirmed the systemic problems already identified in relation to the Green Loans Program, but worryingly notes the Government still has no idea how to measure how well or badly it’s doing,” Senator Birmingham said today.
 
“DCCEE has yet to determine a methodology for measuring the performance of the Green Loans program against its objectives.”
Audit Report No.9 2010–11, ANAO
 
“If Ministerial accountability means anything at all, then Ministers and senior levels of their Departments need to be held to account for such grievous failures as Green Loans.
 
“It therefore remains astonishing that Peter Garrett remains a Cabinet Minister, given these failures, let alone those of the disastrous Home Insulation Program.
 
“For the sake of the environment, Australian taxpayers and those hoping to contribute to environmental programs, the Government must learn from the findings of the ANAO and other inquiries so far conducted.
 
“Further to these damning findings, however, it is important that a further report be released also on an audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) back in February into specific aspects of the Green Loans program.
 
“This PwC report will clearly also identify deficiencies in the Government’s own management and implementation of its Green Loans program.
 
“Assessors who have invested their own time and money in this failed Government program only to be let down deserve to know fully what went wrong, as do taxpayers footing the bills.
 
“Energy Efficiency Minister Greg Combet should urgently release this report that his predecessor Penny Wong steadfastly refused to commit to do.”