Taxpayers will fork out $30m to pay thousands of energy efficiency assessors to complete or upgrade their qualifications for jobs that no longer exist.
This comes after the Gillard government shelved its Green Start scheme.
The decision to abort the $212m energy-efficiency program, cutting the government’s financial and political losses from another bungled Kevin07 election experiment, also exposes taxpayers to compensation claims from 4400 assessors contracted to work for the Environment Department.
The assessors have been checking whether households are eligible for $10,000 low-interest loans to buy energy-saving devices, including new fridges, hot water systems, rainwater tanks and solar panels under the Green Loans scheme.
Brisbane assessor Adam Jones yesterday vented his “devastation” at the blow to his livelihood just days before Christmas.
“This is a real body blow for the industry,” Mr Jones said.
“It’s a continuation of government incompetence, dropping something like this on us with such a lack of regard for the small businesses who rely on it. So many assessors now have nowhere to go.”
Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Minister Greg Combet yesterday pulled the plug on the Green Start scheme, a grants program designed to replace the failed Green Loans scheme, a Kevin Rudd initiative that was due to be axed this month.
Mr Combet gave the Green Loans scheme a two-month reprieve until February 28 - but Green Start would no longer proceed on the grounds it was too “risky”.
“We did not feel we could satisfactorily mitigate all the risks … for us to safely proceed with the program,” he said.
The decision cuts the government’s potential financial losses, saving $182m in program costs alone, but exposes it to legal action from its army of soon-to-be unemployed assessors.
Fieldforce, the company the Environment Department used to develop and deliver training courses for the Green Loans program, and which itself carried out 90,000 assessments, yesterday threatened to sue for compensation. Tim Ryerson, the company’s executive general manager, said: “At the moment I’ve got 250 assessors working for me around Australia, plus approximately 50 field staff and about 100 others. The reality is that a lot of those people will more than likely be sacked.
“(Mr Combet) calls himself the Minister for Climate Change; well he certainly likes changing things at the drop of a hat without giving anyone a hint of what’s going on.”
Newcastle Home Sustainability Assessments has sent the government a bill for $83,000, the amount it claims it spent setting up a business and training nine staff for the now-defunct scheme.
“It’s been a massive loss to us, using borrowed funds which we’ve been paying back ever since,” Mr Brook said.
“Most of the people who had their fingers burned in the insulation scheme at least had some opportunity to make money first.”
Mr Combet yesterday announced the government would spend $15m to refund 50 per cent of the tuition fees - up to $2500 each - for existing assessors who enrol in a new Certificate IV in Home Sustainability Assessment course before June 30, 2012.
Assessors who missed out on government contracts would be given “direct financial support” of up to $3000 each by the end of next year.
Mr Combet said the Green Loans scheme had cost $120m.
The axing of the Green Loans and Green Start schemes echoes the dumping of the $2.45 billion home insulation program, in the wake of rorting and safety hazards, including the deaths of four insulation installers.
Mr Combet’s predecessor, Penny Wong, admitted in April that the government had become aware of “potential cases of non-compliance and fraudulent activity” in the Green Loans scheme, including assessors who were claiming payment for properties that did not exist or which they had not visited.
Victoria Police have been probing claims of fraudulent misappropriation of funds from an unnamed company involved in the Green Loans program.
Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt labelled the latest program axing as “another example of government-by-chaos”.
“We have a Green Loans program which had no loans and a Green Start program which will not start,” Mr Hunt said.
Greens senator Christine Milne yesterday welcomed the assistance package for assessors.
“It would have been a waste of money to continue with a flawed system,” she said.
