Out of Touch Symon Says Garrett Doing Excellent Job

I am concerned that thanks to Labor’s failed insulation scheme thousands of homeowners in Deakin may have been put at risk of fire.

 Thanks to Labor’s shoddy insulation scheme thousands more local homes could now be at risk of fire.

But when questioned about Peter Garrett’s handling of the insulation scheme today, Labor MP for Deakin, Mike Symon said that his Environment Minister had done an ‘excellent job’:

“.. Peter Garrett has done an excellent job with his ministry... I have full confidence in Peter Garrett…I think Peter is doing a wonderful job…”

This Minister’s insulation scheme has so far tragically resulted in 4 deaths, 88 house fires, potentially placing 160,000 homes right across Australia at risk of fire and now needing millions of dollars for urgently needed inspections. Yet Mr Symons describes Peter Garrett’s performance as ‘excellent’. Mr Symon must be in la-la-land, this guy is seriously delusional and out of touch.

Mr Garrett may have sung about “beds are burning” but it is real folk running the real risk of losing their homes, their beds are literally at risk of burning and Mr Symon claims that Peter Garrett has done an ‘excellent job’? This shows that Mike Symon either has no appreciation of how grave the situation really is, or worse, has chosen to ignore his constituents.

It would be interesting to hear whether or not the local community in Deakin shares Mr Symons views about Mr Garrett’s so called ‘excellent’ performance.

Mr Symon as a former electrical trade unionist should know better than anyone else that Garrett has got this all wrong. Rolling out a $2.5 billion program with such obscene haste was always going to cause a problem and this was identified in the Minter Ellison Report.  – is this incompetence or at best shonky management practices by the Minister  now endorsed by a very lazy and out of touch local member?

If Mr Symon asked a tradie to do a risk assessment of his property would it take him to 10 months to read the very report he asked for? If this is the new standard of public administration then heaven help us when the Rudd government takes over the administration of other key public policy areas like health and education from Canberra.  

Mr Symon’s ridiculous defence of the Minister brings discredit to himself and  dishonours the position the people of Deakin have bestowed on him. We should all be collectively embarrassed.

I encourage homeowners who have been part of Labor’s insulation scheme to contact the newspapers to let Mr Symon know what they think of his glowing endorsement of Peter Garrett.

A recent review undertaken by the MFB and CFA in Victoria has revealed there are a growing number of fires caused by insulation material being placed directly on top of down lights, and other electrical appliances (exhaust fans, transformers) in the roof space of houses.

Importantly homeowners should not try to check things for themselves. Tragically, four people have already died, and there is a real risk of more fatalities.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade has called on residents to ‘Check now – do not delay if you have recently had insulation installed’, so I am committed to doing all I can to ensure homeowners who have had insulation installed under Labor get urgent access to free safety inspections.

For a transcript of Mike Symon's door stop Click here

To see the MFB Fact Sheet Click Here