Insulation installer Kellie Jackson says the
Government owes her business money for
work done under the scrapped program.
Insulation installers are considering taking legal action against the Federal Government to recoup the money they lost when Government axed its home insulation scheme.
A group of around 30 installers held a protest outside Parliament House this morning to demand more support from the Government.
They gathered on the spot where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd assured them in February he would help keep their businesses afloat.
Some of them are considering joining a class action, including New South Wales installer Kellie Jackson.
Ms Jackson says the Government owes her business money for work done under the scrapped program.
"A lot of the insulation installers here today, they're all stuffed. They've got nothing," she said.
Ms Jackson, who spoke with Mr Rudd personally in February, says he is as bad as the dodgy installers he denounced at the time.
"As far as I'm concerned he's one of the shonks because he's run from the problem. He's just up and left us all with nothing," she said.
Lenny Churproff drove his insulation truck from Sydney with a simple message on all sides: "Ruined by Rudd."
Mr Churproff painted the message over his business signage. He says he would like Mr Rudd to explain what he meant when he told installers he would help them.
"I need to know why, what that means because I held onto that, those words, and said 'OK, well something good might come out of this', and to date nothing has," he said.
Workers under the troubled green loans program joined the protest.
They are submitting a compensation claim with the Government for $5,000 each.
Another company is trying to recoup more than $500,000 it says it is owed by the Government.
Another supplier, Todd Sanderson, says he feels let down by the Government.
"If it was a stupid business decision on our behalf we'd cop it on the chin, but we did nothing wrong. The Government created the rules and we played by them," he said.
"We weren't shonks. We were a legitimate business and our reputation is now at stake. Our company is now at stake."
No Government ministers attended the protest, but the Opposition's environment spokesman Greg Hunt did.
He says Mr Rudd should apologise to the installers.
"The message to the Prime Minister is very clear. Apologise for misleading them. Apologise for destroying their industry and have the courage to offer a genuine package to them," he said.
Mr Hunt says if the Opposition was in charge, things would be different.
"Well, there's $1 billion which the Government set aside in the budget last week to both fix the roofs and fix the insulation program," he said.
"More than $500 million of that is unallocated and so there is money there to ensure there is a legitimate payout for small business of long standing and good history."
The installers say the Government has been slow to pay outstanding claims and that legitimate small businesses have been excluded from any of the remediation programs.
But Government sources says small business claims are taking some time to process as the Government does not want to pay up to $60 million to companies that have committed fraud.
It says the $15 million to help with inventory costs is fair and it says some of the more vocal companies complaining about the program have serious compliance problems in relation to safety, fire and potential fraud.
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