News location:

Canberra Today 12°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

ACT QT: Added insulation

Today was all about the installation of insulation in our nation’s capital.

Problem is, it was the roll out of a Federal Government program that saw the deaths of four tradesmen and has sparked national public outrage over OH&S, so there was very little the ACT Government could actually take responsibility for.

But the Liberal boys again rose to the occasion with a fairly consistent level of heckling throughout Question Time, bringing the focus back to insulation at every possible moment and demanding to know what the Government had done to stop dangerous installation of insulation.

Minister Simon Corbell said that the ACT Government could only regulate from a workplace safety perspective and that they had received “no complaints about dodgy installation of insulation since the Commonwealth program began”.

Canberra Liberals MLA Alistair Coe had a moment of triumph to match Chief Minister Stanhope’s mocking call for his elevation to leadership yesterday when he stood up to wave his computer around, pointing at a complaint about bedroom lights that didn’t work after insulation was installed.

Unfortunately for Alistair the complaint was made in June 2009 and the Commonwealth program didn’t start til July 1.

Corbell protested that the pamphlet was for home safety, not workplace safety and its content based on advice provided by the ACT Fire Brigade.

When questioned about current house fire investigations that list insulation as a possible cause, Corbell told the Assembly he couldn’t speculate on their causes – mostly because it was inappropriate and he doesn’t know anything about fires – although he did point out that all fires are reported to the Coroner who decides which cases to investigate.

In between all this delightful insulation driven banter Gallagher got up at the request of Labor’s Mary Porter and went into detail about how completely awesome the ACT economy is looking (carefully timed before the release of the Budget Review this afternoon).

Minister for Multicultural Affairs Joy Burch waxed lyrical about the wonders and success of the Multicultural Festival over the weekend and John Hargreaves asked if the solo guitar or Bollywood dancing was better. This apparently is because he gave his own performance at the festival this year.

Favourite Question Time moment of the day? When Caroline Le Couteur followed up questions taken on notice,

“We should have received an answer by now… [dramatic pause] we live in hope.”

Yes. Yes we do.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews