HSA delay - Volume Thirteen: the grudge

On 14 June 2011, I resigned from the ABSA Board, which I believe is still unable to fulfil its duties under either the ABSA Constitution or the Corporations Act. A week later, ABSA Chairman Michael Plunkett decided to send me an email, asking me to participate in an investigation against a trusted colleague who also doesn't work there any more. Here's my reply.

HSA delay - Volume Twelve: Sugar for Polonius

Dear ABSA member,

Even if you haven't been paying attention to ABSA's antics over the past year and a half - and documenting it along the way as I have - it's hard not to see their most recent episodes as anything more than theatre.

Much of what members have heard over the past few months is predicated upon one specific, pervasive, fundamental lie. Let me dispel it right now: the ABSA Board does not run ABSA.

In truth, the ABSA Board means nothing to the industry at large, nothing to the organisation, and nothing to you. Looking through the past years' Board minutes, I can state categorically that not only does the Board not govern the organisation now but that it has neglected to do so for as long as anyone has been supposed to be paying attention.

HSA delay - Volume Eleven: your turn

Dear ABSA member,

Clearly, ABSA is an organisation in search of a scapegoat. It's doing its best to pretend that it's not, but this is surely not the way you would act if there weren't blame to be cast for something going wrong.

HSA delay - Volume Ten: the end is nigh for uncontracted assessors

[On the morning of 23 April 2011, I sent the following email to all of the uncontracted Green Loans assessors I know, and a few other interested parties.]

Hi everyone,

I write to you today with heavy heart. I fear that the fight is over, not with a bang but with a whimper.

I write to advise you to take DCCEE up on its Financial Assistance Scheme.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving this advice because I believe that what DCCEE is offering is fair. I don't believe it at all, and yet, I intend to take the advice myself. I'm saying this because we have run out of other options.

Green Loans presentation to Mayo Greens - 10 November 2010

On Wednesday last week, I gave a presentation to the Mayo Greens in the Adelaide Hills about the Green Loans Program.

A few people have asked for me to make the Powerpoint slides public, so here they are.

Why I have nominated for the ABSA Board

With the ABSA 2010 Annual General Meeting less than a month away, members will shortly be receiving information about who has been nominated to run for the all-new Board of Directors.

There has been some speculation that I would be among the candidates. I am hereby announcing that this is indeed the case.

If you've been reading my blog - which has been dominated for nearly a year by the (ahem) less successful facets of the Home Sustainability Assessment Scheme (HSAS) - or, as it is still (inaccurately) called, the Green Loans Program - you might be wondering what on Earth has possessed me to go through with this.

HSA delay - Volume Nine: Work, Choices

I want to write this time about the Department of Climate Change and about ABSA. This was originally going to be two letters, and then two articles, with many of the key details duplicated. Bear with it being one long article now; it's been a long time since I've written publicly about what's happening, so there's a lot to cover.

HSA delay - Volume Eight: from the Senate Inquiry

I was in Sydney on Tuesday, 29 June 2010, to give evidence to the ongoing Senate Inquiry into the Green Loans Program. It was an interesting day, certainly, but it was exactly as much fun as it sounds.

A proof transcript is available online here.

Media releases from yesterday's Green Loans rallies

What follows after the jump is a speech that I wrote for yesterday's United Programs of Australia rally in Adelaide. I didn't actually make the speech on the day: it would be an understatement to say that we didn't get the turnout in Adelaide that we hoped for. However, I did get ten minutes on ABC Radio in Canberra, and I got most of my points across in that. I understand that they found me via Senator Simon Birmingham's office, but in any case, I'm thankful for it.

Senator Birmingham also released a statement in support of our efforts, to go along with an official media release from Green Loans Assessors Action Group (one of the groups uniting for these rallies).

United Programs of Australia - Adelaide protest rally on Wednesday, 23 June

Green Loans Assessors Action Group is proud to announce the United Programs of Australia protest rally, taking place simultaneously around the country on Wednesday, 23 June.

The Adelaide rally will be held in Victoria Square from 8am to 9am.

Printable flier here. More details after the jump.

Green Loans: my appearances on ABC Radio Adelaide last week

As some of you may be aware, I was on ABC Radio Adelaide last Wednesday, posing a question to Senator Penny Wong about what will become of the 5000 of us accredited Home Sustainability Assessors waiting for 600 remaining contracts in the Green Loans Program.

GLACG: Canberra Green Loans Rally, 24 May

[Press release from the GLA Compensation Group. For a PDF version, click here. Full disclosure: I am a member of this group. - A.N.] 

Canberra Green Loans Rally
WHEN: Monday May 24th 2010, 10am for 1100am media call. Conclusion 12pm
WHERE: Parliament House Lawns, Canberra.

‘A FAIR GO - for Green Loans Assessors and their families’

GLACG: Rewards Cards Cancelled, Uncontracted Assessors In The Cold

[Press release from the GLA Compensation Group. Full disclosure, I am a member of this group. - A.N.]

HSA delay - Volume Seven: the oncoming train

On Thursday, 6 May 2010 - nearly 11 weeks after the fact - DCCEE awarded a contract to work in the Green Loans Program.

Some other uncontracted Home Sustainability Assessors received news of theirs the next day, and were kind enough to share the news on the ABSA Forums. Good luck to them. But what's really going on here?

Three media releases about Green Loans and the GLA Compensation Group

[These three media releases were passed on to me by Patrick Moroney, the media consultant for the GLA Compensation Group. They are available for immediate release. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of this group. - A.N.]

HSA delay - Volume Six: Where do we stand?

With a Senate Inquiry looming, this is as good a time as any to take stock of the Green Loans Program. The scheme has been riddled at all levels with a broad spectrum of problems, many of which have already been discussed at length, even on this blog. However, we need to understand where we are at this point in time and, most importantly, what to do from here.

What follows is a summary of the GLP so far, laced with a few anecdotes I have received personally from assessors, both working and waiting, and customers who have had their own homes assessed.

Letter to Mark Butler MP regarding the Green Loans Program

[I have written the following letter to Mark Butler MP, my federal member for the seat of Port Adelaide. If we in the GLP are to secure a fair outcome, in either the short or long term, we need the understanding and support of the federal government. - A.N.]

Dear Mr Butler,

I remember meeting you at a public visit to Mawson Lakes when you were first a candidate for the seat of Port Adelaide. We spoke briefly about discovering the topic of peak oil and of Jeremy Leggett's book, "Carbon War".

My letter concerns another issue of environmentalism: the federal government's Green Loans Program and the difficulties it is causing working families in your constituency and across Australia.

HSA delay - Volume Five: The Return Of Fieldforce

This week, I want to look at what that pack of bastards at Fieldforce have suggested doing to thousands of defenceless participants in the Green Loans Program. (With apologies to Mr Littlemore QC for the paraphrasing, of course.)

HSA delay - Volume Four

Wednesday saw Senator Penny Wong, now the Minister in charge of the stagnant Green Loans Program, on her third day on the job. As is par for the course, though, the afternoon was less about what was said that was left unsaid.

Read the relevant pages from Senate Hansard here. More analysis after the jump.

HSA delay - Volume Three - a complaint on behalf of assessors yet to be contracted

[This was emailed to ABSA, DEWHA, and others for whom I have email addresses. If you know a HSA, practising or not, or anyone else involved in the Green Loans Program, please pass this message on to them. - A.N.]

Subject: a complaint on behalf of assessors yet to be contracted