Contractors wary over insulation fix

Home owners urged to check insulation.

ELECTRICAL contractors have warned the Federal Government that it cannot afford to bungle the relaunch of its household insulation rebate scheme.

"They need to get it right. It can't go faulty twice" said James Tinslay, executive director of the National Electrical and Communications Association on Friday.

The government has suspended the program, promising to introduce an amended scheme in June.

Meanwhile, it has ordered safety inspections of up to 50,000 homes which have had foil insulation installed under the original scheme.

If found to be unsafe, the insulation will be ripped out or safety switches installed.

There are estimates the measure could cost taxpayers up to $100 million.

Mr Tinslay described the move as "a good start", but warned safety switches were a supplementary means of protection.

"Faced with those two options of pulling the foil out or having a safety switch we'd highly recommend the foil be pulled out," he told ABC Radio.

It would take some time for public confidence in the insulation industry to return, Mr Tinslay said.

"I think that's unfortunate as there were many good companies doing work."

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said that safety was never the top priority for the government.

"And right now we see they have no plan to find and fix 240,000 either dangerous or dodgy roofs," he told Sky News.

"They have no sense at all about the cost ... and above all else, there's no sense of having learnt the lesson."

It was also unclear whether Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's own department had watered down safety advice to get the scheme up and running, Mr Hunt said.

The opposition quizzed Mr Rudd in parliament on Thursday about what he knew about safety problems with the scheme during its first months.

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