Green loans “hijacked”

Peter Garrett’s promise in 2007

The reality in 2010

The $175 million green loans scheme was "hijacked" by opportunists, overseas call centres and companies that specialised in making homes environmentally friendly, leading to a raft of dubious assessments.

As the Auditor-General begins a probe into the debacle, the industry association charged by Environment Minister Peter Garrett to accredit the army of green assessors has slammed the scheme as poorly managed and lacking quality checks.

Association of Building Sustainability Assessors chairman Wayne Floyd said tens of thousands of home owners, eligible for the $10,000 interest-free loans, were now likely to miss out on the Rudd government’s new March 22 deadline on the loans.

"The principles behind the scheme were really good, but because of poor management the scheme got out of control," he said yesterday. "Due to a lack of auditing of the process there was a quantity of dubious assessments go through from people who are there to make money and sell products."

Source: The Australian