Electricians Still Under Fire in Australia

BY VICTOR VIOLANTE AND ROSSLYN BEEBY
12 Feb, 2010 08:31 AM
A joint coronial hearing will investigate the cause of three ACT house fires in the wake of the Federal Government's maligned $3.7 billion roof insulation program.
The energy efficiency scheme is in crisis, with Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett fending off calls to resign and forced to order an electrical safety audit of about 40,000 homes fitted with foil insulation after inspections found faulty installation had left several houses with electrically ''live'' roof cavities.


Four workers have died while installing insulation under the program; three were electrocuted while fitting foil and ceiling batts, and a 19-year-old worker died from heat exhaustion while working in a roof cavity.

Last October, after one installer had died fitting the metal insulation, Mr Garrett met with Master Electricians Australia to discuss safety.

''Master Electricians were very concerned in general terms that metal fasteners and foil insulation posed an unacceptable safety electrocution risk,'' Mr Garrett told Parliament of what was said in the meeting.

The electricians asked him to suspend the use of metal insulation in the program and issued a media release calling for the metal insulation to be removed from the scheme.

Mr Garrett refused to do so.

Revelations of union warnings over the safety of the green energy scheme at a federal level come as the ACT Government confirmed yesterday that three Canberra house fires in the past three months would be the subject of a joint coronial hearing because they might have been caused by recently installed insulation under the program.