Pink batts, wink, wink

​We all know about the pink batt scandal don't we?  A government putting up a ridiculous program at massive cost to put silly PINK (OMG) batts in people's roofs.  What a blatant waste of cash at the tax payer's expense and further evidence (if it were Needed) to show up the incompetence of the Labor Government.  This is at least the conventional wisdom repeated over and over by the baying hounds of the right and unquestioned by a supine and grovelling Press.
The real story is very very different.  As part of the stimulus package that helped Australia keep jobs, drive the economy and make an environmental difference, the government gave subsidies to households to insulate them and thus make warmer (in winter) and cooler (in summer) environments thus allowing them to use less energy for the same result.  I have yet to see any figures that show the outcomes.  The idea was sound and a great deal of insulation went in
Some unscrupulous installers took advantage of the ready funds and used untrained personnel to do (in a very minute number of cases) a shoddy job that resulted in some fires and even the death of installers.
These practises were and are unacceptable and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
HOWEVER equating bad behaviour with a bad scheme is like saying that a government that builds roads should be held to account for bad driving on those roads and be responsible for the deaths and accidents that happen there.
Every murderer in state prisons went to school and so the schools should  be closed down immediately.
The easy sound bite has replaced civilised debate and discourse.  It is easier and more memorable to insult, deride and slander than to really engage in debate with knowledge and research.
I witnessed a doctor interviewing a patient today and while she was thorough and patient she didn't have access to all the patient records she needed to do her ob properly.  She rang the GP who had referred the patient but that part of the practice was closed already.  With the NBN and a national medical register all would have been accessible in a moment instead of the now multiple visits, letters and phone calls and the delay in treatment.
Mr Abbott assures us that with HIS plan for broadband we will (most of us living in big cities) be able to watch four different HD TV programs at the same time in a family home.  Malcolm Turnbull., singing from the same song sheet, was smart enough to know that there is more to broadband than watching TV.
Wait and see what the impact is on what used to be called programming.
Yes, it's a long time to September; long enough for the Pretender to be exposed countless times and for Australians to learn who is looking after the store.