Insulation Scheme

No doubt Abbott's odious opposition will bleat loudly about Kevin's cancelled insulation scheme - but the truth is they would never have even attempted something as courageous and ambitious as "saving our economy" from the effects of the global financial crisis. They wouldn't know where to start - even with Costello in tow.

Not to mention that their soul mates in the US - the Republican party - actually created the problem - with their slack, lax and non-existent regulatory processes, encouragement of a corrupt financial sector and a President who was asleep at the wheel - when he wasn't busy waging war on someone.

But all that is a sideshow - our Federal Government attempted to deal with the crisis and as you would expect they actually got some things wrong and made a few mistakes. All that shows is that Federal Ministers are human like the rest of us - thank goodness ;-)

But the bigger issue for me is the large amount of fraud and corruption that got entrenched with these processes.

How is it that every shonky contractor in the country became a "registered" insulation installer? Where were the state inspectors and safety agencies in this process? Don't the states regulate, register and license everyone who touches houses?

Yes they do.

Now I only know this because an acquaintance of mine makes wardrobes - and he was gracious enough to walk me through the processes that he had to go through to gain a "license" to install those wardrobes in our houses. And apparently everyone up to and including an "assistant chief poo bar" needs to approve applications to install wardrobes. Now this is a fairly safe gig - imagine the approvals that are necessary to install insulation? And then ask yourself why all the shonks in the country gained that approval.

And then wonder why it's the Feds who are being blamed when it's the states who own this regulatory responsibility.

And even today we have Premier Brumby railing against an ICAC - because it would be a "lawyer’s picnic". Never mind that it would also root out this entrenched state corruption.

That's the thing with our lightweight mainstream media - they never let the facts get in the way of a good story.