Labor Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has shown that when it comes to decisions about expenditure of the nations funds, expenditure in the billions, expenditure they borrowed the money for, that he can’t be bothered sitting back and doing the homework and dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

It was astounding to hear Mr Tanner on Sky News with David Speers saying that the ceiling insulation and solar panel program had to be rushed out and he didn’t have time to get across the details. It is the responsibility of Mr Tanner with the vast resources of his department available to him to make sure that he is prudent with the oversight of how our nation’s dollars are spent.

 It’s now apparent that there is an $850 million blowout in the solar panel program. 

 Mr Tanner you do have to sit back and dot the i’s and cross the t’s to avoid a $1.5 billion blowout in the school halls scheme. Mr Tanner you do have to sit back and dot the i’s and cross the t’s to avoid a $4 billion blowout in the Forward Estimates on expenditure.

 Early in the week Mr Tanner was evasive about how much money was unspent in the stimulus program, which Senator Conroy later that day in question time said was $21 billion, yet in Estimates the department said it was only $17 billion.  Another $4 billion mistake!

 Basically Mr Tanner when you tell the nation that you haven’t dotted the i’s and cross the t’s, it is your economic credibility and the credibility of Labor in general that is questioned.