Taxpayers are still millions of dollars out of pocket from dodgy activities under Labor’s disastrous $2.5 billion Home Insulation Program, linked to at least four deaths and more than 200 house fires.
The extent of outstanding payments still being sought was detailed by Climate Change departmental officials in a Senate Estimates hearing under questioning from Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham.
Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE) officials today gave evidence that:
- 2,035 letters of demand to installers have been issued seeking $21.3 million, of which just $844,000 has been collected, with $2.3 million written off or cancelled, leaving an enormous $18.1 million still outstanding, much of it for at least nine months;
- 47 notifications have been made to administrators of defunct installers advising of $2.6 million in outstanding debts; and
- 57 claims have been made to recoup $5.24 million in grants that were provided to companies who were ineligible to receive insulation industry assistance grants.
“The Home Insulation Program was obviously a complete disaster but it is astounding that Australians are still, even today, paying the price of the Government having ignored countless warnings about the conduct of this program,” Senator Birmingham said today.
“The Government might have abandoned this program long ago, albeit well after it should have, but taxpayers continue to foot the costs of Labor’s recklessness in pushing ahead with it in the first place.
“Australian taxpayers should be horrified at the extent of the financial hit they continue to endure as a result of this program, let alone the pain inflicted on so many by Labor’s indefensible recklessness.”