After a tense day yesterday in Question Time — including Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s attack saying Garrett is in “electrocution denial” — it seems that Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s ministerial life will live to see another day.

But with news that Mark Arbib was also involved in the insulation program, orders for 160,000 houses to be checked for safety issues, and talk of jobs lost, the problem isn’t over for Garrett yet.

How the pundits see it:

Sydney Morning Herald

Miranda Devine: Like a pink batt out of hell, Garrett absorbs the heat

But Garrett is the government’s human pink batt, insulating Rudd and his cabinet from the heat. For no other reason he’s hanging on.

National Times

Tony Wright “The Goanna”: A desperate man finds help in a street fighter

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appears in no mood to put Garrett out of his misery. Could that be to insulate himself from the charge that in his rush to shovel billions into the economy, he foisted a poorly planned scheme upon an environment department that had no idea how to handle it?

The Australian:

Dennis Shanahan: Bad likely to get worse for minister

This issue is no longer within the confines of parliament — it’s out in the community. It can get worse, much, much worse.

Courier-mail

Dennis Atkins: Insulation batt controversy has run its course

As it stands, the political caravan looks ready to move on.

Elswhere

North Coast Voices: It’s the greed, stupid!

It was those business owners who contracted with householders to install roof insulation (and sometimes then sub-contracted the work to unskilled individuals) who are responsible for the dangerous manner in which some of this insulation was laid down.

Larvatus Prodeo, Robert Merkel: Lessons from the insulation stuff-up

Spending so much money, so quickly, is always going to result in some of it being misallocated. But the big picture was that the stimulus package worked, and worked exceptionally well.