AIBS National News

Despite a 43% spike in sales, Australian insulation manufacturer Air-Cell has grave concerns the federal Government’s insulation subsidy scheme is not delivering on its promises.

Air-Cell Managing Director Scott Gibson said although the scheme had steeply increased demand for insulation, there were many concerns regarding product compliance and the large amount of stimulus dollars going off shore.

“We have many reasons to suspect this $4 billion energy-efficient housing program is enticing unscrupulous manufacturers and importers out of the woodwork.

“Imported imitation bubble insulation products have increased markedly since the scheme’s inception and no one is checking their compliance claims to Australian standards for performance and fire safety,” said Mr Gibson.

Some reports have suggested as much as $1billion has been directed to Chinese imports of insulation when other Australian manufacturers have spare capacity.

Reports of non-compliance and dubious practices have forced Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to order random spot checks on ‘thousands’ of installation jobs to check compliance.

However Mr Gibson questioned the Government’s ability to resource such an enormous task.

“As it is, the authorities aren’t checking compliance claims of new imported products. Our concern is that the issue of lack of enforcement is only going to be amplified with this program. How many auditors does the Government have for this scheme? And how many of the estimated 2.2 million homes are they intending to check?”

Mr Gibson praised the Government for launching the scheme but said that more should be done to ensure a level playing field and to protect the consumer.

“While we commend the Government for stimulating employment and aiming to improve energy efficiency, more needs to be done to verify the compliance claims of all the new products reaching our shores in the first place.

“The sheer volume of activity and demand has allowed a lot of cowboys to slip through. That impacts the tax payer, and ultimately will impact energy reduction targets if imported products aren’t performing as required to Australian standards.”

Mr Gibson urged homeowners to buy Australian and to demand CodeMark certification for the insulation products being installed.

“CodeMark is a third party product accreditation scheme developed by the Australian Building

Codes Board and is considered to be the building industry’s highest level of product conformance. Demanding a CodeMark-certified insulation will ensure homeowners are getting a compliant product.”

Australian made Air-Cell is third party CodeMark certified for compliance. In Queensland and northern New South Wales the company has experienced a 43% growth in sales resulting from the Government scheme.