A year or so ago I wrote about how the Roman Emperors used to hold games in the Colosseum and toss bread to the plebs to keep them happy. I sense we are seeing a modern version of the same tactic in terms of Rudd’s cash for everything campaign.

Instead of games in the Colosseum we have grand sounding plans like the NBN, Health Care Reform, Tax Reviews and events like the Australia 2020 Summit. Instead of bread being tossed to the plebs we have cash handouts, rebates for imported pink batts and the first home buyers grant etc.

Some things never change!

I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that Oz is more socialist than I’d thought until recently. So for the Libs to have any chance of winning government, they know they have to pander to a lot of that type of thinking. Just part of having become so dependant on our minerals exports rather than “working” for a living maybe?

Anyway, I’m hoping to get a better idea of just how socialist we’ve become when we see the KHR.

To be honest – I actually think the ABC has been doing a really good job of late. Of course you get their bleeding lefty drivel sometimes but they have been doing far better of late I feel. ABC news breakfast has been very good at reporting all sides of the story and being neutral and also asking the hard questions. This particularly in relation to the pink batts. They went very hard at this issue and it was good to see. While the rest of the media were focused on Tiger Woods – they were chasing up answers in relation to the pink batts. I hope they can keep it up especially if they go ahead with a 24hr news channel.

Let’s not try and imagine another term of this… It will keep me up all night.

What is worse is the cover up. If it is true that Gillard and Garrett did try and raise concerns and they were shot down – it raises a lot of question. Then as soon as it became apparent how bad the situation was Garrett was hung out to dry. To make it worse Rudd ran away to Tassy and left it up to others once again to clean up his own mess.

With Rudd being such a micromanager control freak it is hard to believe that his finger prints are not all over this one.

Maybe the real villain in this whole sad story is none other than the Teflon Man – Kevin Rudd.

Meanwhile Rudd is off spending more money by announcing an ‘Australian Centre on China in the World’ costing an initial $53 Million! http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/rudd-announces-new-anu-china-centre/story-fn3dxity-1225857620680. Maybe this is some form of elaborate Covered Outdoor Learning Area! We have already wasted millions on those things – why not another $53m for good measure.

More dodgy dealings over in Wong’s neck of the woods: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/penny-wong-launches-audit-of-green-loans-program-over-assessor-fraud-allegations/story-e6frgczf-1225857444412. This after the canning of the pink batts the other day.

We are bleeding millions and millions with all these failures yet they barely get a mention.

K Rudd has not had a good week with all this going on and now this also today – http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/lindsay-tanner-defends-kevin-rudd-pm-against-claims-of-a-tax-threshold-gaffe/story-e6frgczf-1225857550259. From memory, this is not the first time he has been fuzzy on tax. I do remember before the last election he could not name a single rate or a single threshold and this is the Government that is suppose to deliver root and branch tax reform!

Rudd’s pink batts scheme sank today. The report was pretty damning and looks like there were so many red flags along the way that it is enough that all the ministers involved should be held account and either step down or be sacked. http://resources.news.com.au/files/2010/04/22/1225856/915739-hawkereport.pdf

“TONY Abbott has again raised eyebrows within opposition ranks by flagging the Coalition might cut the dole for people under 30.”

http://www.theage.com.au/national/abbott-dole-call-raises-eyebrows-20100421-sspw.html

Thats pretty much election suicide. He might have the right idea, but the delivery of the policy and the way it comes across is just bad.
Looks like another Dudd term sigh.

So actually this means Garrett is incompetent, since in project management terms he was the project sponsor and therefore it was his responsibility not only to study this assessment, but in fact make sure he was updated on the steps being taken to mitigate the risks.

Heads should be rolling, starting with Garret’s and since Kev07 said the bucks stopped with him, he should be resigning as well.

Or maybe Rudd means the buck stops just before it reaches him?

This home insulation scheme has been a monumental failure. Garrett has to go. The list of warnings, the stories of dodgy installers just keeps growing longer every single day. If you start to see that many houses catching on fire – that many warnings received and then people start to die and you don’t stop the scheme – it is simple dereliction of duty. How do you not realise by the 20th fire that things are getting out of hand let alone the reports of dozens of electrified roofs. And where was the PM while all this was going on? Why was he not informed and if he was, why did he not step in? Surly by that point you would go “hang on, let’s just slow things up a bit”?

Your right Ned when you point out in your earlier post about the NBN, ETS, Health ect… Makes you wonder what is hiding in that mess…

On the insulation issue, I see that the law suits against the government have started. Heck, even the legal profession is getting a boost out of Kev’s stimulus program.

But a quality plan kept you focused and made you think about outcomes. It didn’t hurt to have people prodding around checking stuff and sometimes it helped avoid some nasty problems as the project rolled on.

However when I look at how the government is managing their projects I don’t see any quality planning. In fact I don’t even see clear objectives. Their only objectives seem to be; to spend money, keep people busy and make it through the next election.

“If the government can’t handle something fairly simply like home insulation then one wonders” …

* An NBN?
* An ETS?
* Super?
* Health?
* Tax?
* International Trade relationships?

Good thing they don’t stick their noses into anything important eh?

Just as a side note in relation to the Intergenerational Report, that reckons the solution is for us to all become more productive, some of the smarties are saying Well that’s going to be a neat trick given that there’ll be more of us using less cost effective energy.

I think we’ll get taxed more and our standard of living will go down myself. But, I’m just a nasty old skeptic I guess? GO ASIA!!!

It seems pretty pointless to me to have Australian Standards that local manufactures have to comply with but then allow businesses/people to bypass you safety framework and import batts or panels that do not comply with these standards.

I have managed the odd project in the past myself and one way most of this could have been avoided would have been via the application of common sense.

Firstly it should have been clearly stated what standard of workmanship and materials were to be used and secondly, random audits should have been done from the very beginning!

The only way I can see that the situation got so bad is that no one was doing any random quality checks and if that is the case, Garrett and all the staff who managed this debacle should be shown the door.

If the government can’t handle something fairly simply like home insulation then one wonders what other spending disasters awaits us!?!

…

“Mr Zuzul, representing the Polyester Insulation Manufacturers Association of Australia, said he tested 20 products and all of them failed to meet expected standards.”

…

“But the government said it was not going to start policing the issue and it should be up to individual home owners to make sure their insulation had been installed to code …”

http://www.smh.com.au/national/up-to-400000-properties-have-dodgy-insulation-inquiry-20100217-oc8l.html

Could just the local manufacturers miffed that they missed out on the business? Maybe not, but let’s hope so.

I don’t recall ever having a government that promises so much and delivers so little? But given their track record on what they do deliver, that’s probably a good thing.