Greg Hunt, Opposition environment spokesman said “Every householder who is concerned that their insulation may be one of the 240,000 dangerous or sub-standard insulation jobs should be entitled to have it inspected by the government.”

The Opposition has called for the government to inspect every home insulated under the program.

It’s also called on the government to release four letters by Peter Garrett to the Prime Minister about the scheme, which the Prime Minister will not release citing cabinet confidentiality.

A recently launched auditor general report into the contentious program has highlighted

Rawlinsons is widely used within industry circles, and continually monitors construction costs across all sectors including education, office, retail, industrial, hospitality etc.

It releases its figures according to State.

The Australian reported the disparity between Rawlinsons figures, and that the ALP is spending.

Education Minister Julia Gillard was unable to explain to The Australian why state schools were forced to pay such a high price for structures.

The ALP continues to shrug off claims of cost blow-outs, saying higher costs equals higher quality – something it has failed to prove.

As well as the potential cost blowout, the controversial $16.2 billion program was criticised for failing to “revolutionise” anything within the Education sector – instead just build new structures, many of which schools have neither wanted or needed.

In Queensland recently, ALP housing minister Karen Struthers called for “tolerance” in welcoming an increasing surge of public housing residents to its neighbourhoods.

In Victoria, Planning Minister Justin Madden “called in” (approved without community consultation) several social housing projects, which did not need to be publicly advertised, because of a temporary change in the law last year, and soon after the initiative was announced.

Kelvin Thompson, the federal minister for Wills and Jane Garrett, the ALP candidate for Brunswick, in Melbourne, have both acknowledged in The Age today, the government’s failure to consult the community over public housing redevelopment.

However despite the acknowledgement, little seems to be done to change it.

When quizzed about the fast-tracking of projects in the scheme, Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek handpassed a response, telling The Age “such issues were a matter for the state”.

In Queensland, the government has recently said it would not let protesters get in the way of social housing construction.

Mr Madden, again speaking via a spokeswoman, told The Age rather conclusively: “Meeting these time frames ensures Victoria receives its share of nation building funding and boosts its social housing stock across the State.”

Major social housing projects in Coburg and Geelong, in Victoria recently started construction before residents were consulted.

Mr Madden, a former AFL footballer, is facing his second vote of no confidence in a year, over an email sent to him by a media adviser outlining a sham consultation process for the Windsor Hotel redevelopment, in which it would be claimed the politician listened to the public, in rejecting an application.

In Melbourne, a major 128-hectare proposal for Department of Defence land on the banks of the Maribyrnong River, in Cordite Avenue, Maribyrnong, near Highpoint, will include “at least” 20 per cent social and affordable housing.

VicUrban will assume control of the prominent Maribyrnong site in 2012 and proceed with the development, which was not seen by the community, prior to VicUrban announcing plans for the site.

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Public Housing Building Boom Underway in Australia

Another 1,200 units will be developed on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

Housing Minister Karen Struthers said “The NIMBY (Not in my Backyard) stuff is such a shame.”

“The arguments (for objections) are usually practical things about car parks…but sometimes when we dig a little deeper that’s masking general concern about social housing tenants coming into their neighbourhoods,” she said.

Brisbane Housing Company is co-ordinating the construction of the dwellings.

The Rudd Bank would have lent money to developers, to bridge the gap between the total development cost, and the amount a developer can borrow from foreign banks.

An ALP media statement released January 24 is copied below:

To help support Australian jobs, the Rudd Government will establish a $4 billion Australian Business Investment Partnership.

This $4 billion Partnership is a temporary contingency measure to provide liquidity support to viable major commercial property projects in Australia.

The Partnership will support the commercial property assets of viable Australian businesses which, without financing, would be forced to retrench thousands of employees.

Commercial property projects that could be supported by this initiative include shopping centres, office towers and factories under construction, as well as existing properties of that nature.

The commercial property sector employs about 150,000 people in Australia.

Many of the 150,000 workers employed in the commercial property sector are tradespeople, such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters.

Without action, a combination of weak demand and tight credit conditions could see up to 50,000 people in this sector lose their jobs, according to Treasury, with flow-on effects to jobs in other parts of the economy.

Small and medium size businesses which service the commercial property sector could also be devastated by weak demand and tight credit conditions in the sector

The Government will not sit idly by and watch these jobs and small and medium size businesses be wiped out by fluctuations in global credit markets.

The Partnership will be structured to minimise the exposure risk to Australian taxpayers. It will not allow the major banks to pass on any underperforming assets to the Australian Government. Safeguards will ensure the banks continue to finance the projects to be supported, and that projects will only be considered where a member of a syndicate has actually decided to exit.

Foreign banks in Australia

Foreign banks play an important role in the Australian financial system, but the global financial crisis means that some foreign banks may consider withdrawing their funding from good Australian businesses that require funding to invest in growth and jobs.

That is why the Rudd Government will establish the Partnership to ensure viable Australian construction and commercial property projects, and the jobs and businesses they support, are not wiped out because of unrelated and uncontrollable fluctuations in global credit markets.

The Australian Business Investment Partnership

The Australian Business Investment Partnership will support only high quality Australian assets suffering as a result of global weakness in capital markets.

The action the Government is undertaking does not in any way reflect on the health of the Australian banking system. The banking sector remains well capitalised and Australia has withstood the impact of the global crisis better than many of its international counterparts.

However Australia is not immune from the global crisis and the actions being announced today will help shore up our system against ongoing uncertainty. Disruption in the commercial property sector credit market could have a devastating impact on Australian jobs, which is why the Government is determined to act.

The Government and the major banks have committed capital to this fund in equal partnership and will only offer loans by unanimous agreement between all parties. The Partnership will provide financing on fully commercial terms for commercial property where the underlying assets, and the income streams from those assets, are commercially sound.

This Partnership will be initially capitalised at $4 billion, with the Government contribution of $2 billion matched by an equal contribution by Australia’s four major banks. The initial $4 billion capitalisation could be extended via the issuance of government guaranteed debt to create up to $30 billion of loanable capital.

The Partnership will be limited to the re-financing of existing Australian commercial property syndicated loans on commercial terms when the withdrawal of funding by a participant of the syndicate threatens the refinancing of the loan.

The Partnership will focus on completed commercial property investments and partly completed development projects with secured pre-commitments (for example, retail shopping centres, commercial office and industrial property). It will be structured to allow sufficient flexibility to provide financing in other areas of commercial lending, should the need arise and the Government and four major banks jointly agree.

Completed commercial property projects would be included in this partnership to ensure that systemic instability in the commercial property sector does not undermine investor confidence.

The Government and the major banks will continue discussions over the coming weeks to finalise arrangements for the implementation of the Partnership, with a view to having it operational by March 2009.

Ubertas is headed by Albert Dadon, a long-time and close personal friend of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and wife Therese Rein, and with whom he spent last New Year’s Eve.

Last year Ubertas appointed Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, to a role marketing apartments, despite “Mr Gillard’s” previous sales experience, selling hair products.

Ubertas owns a double storey office building on a prominent site opposite the Flagstaff Gardens and Victoria Market, and is currently seeking approval by Planning Minister Justin Madden to build one of two high-rises, the tallest rising some 50-levels (the smallest rising 35-levels).