Pink batts class action trial wraps up

POOR work by public servants rolling out a federal government home insulation program was akin to a defective ladder causing a fall, a court has been told.

More than 140 insulation businesses and suppliers are seeking about $150 million in damages from the Commonwealth in a class action trial that finished yesterday.

The businesses say they suffered heavy losses when the Rudd Government’s $2.7 billion Home Insulation Program was cancelled in 2010 because the Commonwealth did not fulfil its duty of care to properly design and implement the scheme.

“If there had not been negligence here, it’s our case to say that those losses wouldn’t have happened because the program would have run its course,” class action barrister Jim Delany QC told the Victorian Supreme Court.

The scheme was shut down after the deaths of four workers in NSW and Queensland.

Justice John Dixon has reserved his decision.