Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the prime minister should be "man enough" to hold a judicial inquiry into the government's bungled home insulation scheme.
The government has been forced to scrap its botched $2.45 billion program, which provided rebates for home roof insulation.
The scheme, which was suspended in February, after revelations of shonky installations, was due to resume in a modified form from June 1.
It will now be scrapped.
Mr Abbott said the government's record on program delivery was "worse than Whitlam".
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"The bungled insulation program will go down as probably the worst single government initiative in Australia's history," he told reporters on Thursday.
"We have known for two months just how bad this program is.
"The only way we can get to the bottom of this ... disaster is through a full judicial inquiry.
"I call upon the prime minister to be man enough to have a full judicial inquiry."
The insulation scheme has been linked to four deaths and 120 house fires, Mr Abbott said.
"This really is a government that's worse than Whitlam when it comes to delivering programs for the Australian people," he said.
"It's utterly incompetent.
"This is a government that is written and authorised by the Hollowmen script writers."
Mr Abbott said the prime minister should compensate businesses affected by the axed program.
"They've been hung out to dry ... he can't provide any meaningful details on the assistance package they will be offered," he said.
"You can't leave people in the lurch like this.
"There are dozens if not hundreds of insulation installers who have bought... new stock in anticipation of this program continuing.
"They have been betrayed."
He said Australian families were not safe unless all insulation jobs were checked.
"None of the one million insulated homes have been inspected and the government doesn't even plan to inspect all of them," Mr Abbott said.
Assistant Energy Efficiency Minister Greg Combet said about 38,000 of at least 150,000 planned home inspections had been carried out in houses.
The government has also promised to install safety switches in about 50,000 homes which had foil insulation installed.
Mr Combet rejected suggestions the government had misled the insulation industry into believing the scheme would resume from June 1.
"No, the government certainly hasn't deceived the industry," he said.
The government already had announced various programs to help the industry and soon it would release guidelines for those businesses with significant stockpiles of insulation material, he said.
The government also was assessing the incidence of alleged fraud of the scheme, Mr Combet said.
Cabinet's decision to scrap the scheme was made after a review of the scheme by a former senior public servant Allan Hawke.
His assessment reportedly is highly critical of the scheme's policy development and implementation process.
Dr Hawke also found that the arrangements and time frame for the modified scheme would not ensure the highest safety standards, The Sydney Morning Herald said on Thursday.
The review would be released publicly, Mr Combet said.
Mr Combet dodged suggestions the government was rash to announce the insulation program would restart, before getting the results of the Hawke review.
The scheme had been a "very important" program in the context of the government's stimulus response to the global financial crisis, Mr Combet said.
"It resulted in 1.1 million homes having insulation installed... a very substantial number of those installations have been done in a fully compliant manner," he said.
"We unfortunately have a number of unscrupulous operators that came into that program, participating in a non-compliant behaviour."
A significant number of jobs were created because of the program.
"It is true to say that quite a lot of jobs have been lost following the termination of the program," Mr Combet said.
The government had asked the commonwealth auditor-general to expedite his inquiry into the program with a report expected by the end of September.
As well, the environment department had appointed forensic auditors to review claims to identify cases of fraud.
Some of the cases had already been referred to the Australian Federal Police, Mr Combet said.
The uncle of one of the four men who died during the scuttled program says the scheme was a disaster waiting to happen.
Lyndon Hull is the uncle of 16-year-old Reuben Barnes who was electrocuted while installing insulation in a home near Rockhampton in Queensland in November 2009.
Mr Hull said he believed that the cost of inspecting the remaining 112,000 homes had led to the axing of the program.
"The reason the scheme has been stopped is money - using up all the money to check the ones that already had the insulation installed," he told AAP.
"It's just a joke, it was just a mess from the start.
"They'd been warned about this, they'd been warned - warned by industry groups, by the electrical trade and by the builders that it was going to be a potential disaster. And it killed four young men."
Reuben's family were having a hard time of it, Mr Hull said.
"The family are struggling, absolutely, still struggling," he said.
"We haven't given up the fight for Reuben, and we won't be."
He said the family has held discussions with a Melbourne barrister.
"We want some more answers and we're looking at all legal avenues," he said.
"If Greg Combet had been in charge from the start, I don't think the scheme would have got off the ground the way it did.
"(Minister) Peter Garrett was no good at his job and probably just agreed to do it."
Meanwhile, accredited Sydney insulation firms say the end of the scheme will force dozens of companies into bankruptcy and hundreds of workers will be sacked.
Tony Arundell, manager of Hoxton Park-based Eureka Insulation, says the scheme was open to fraud and was never about the environment.
"Blind Freddy could have seen the scheme was open to fraud from day one," he told AAP.
"It was a scheme to get people working but all it's done is hurt the real workers of this country and I think the government deserves to be punished."
Doug Mill, owner of Chatswood-based The Demand Group, added: "We're all looking at the likelihood of failing and today's announcement will push us all further towards that."
Mr Mill and Mr Arundell both said "cowboys" found the scheme easy to rort and that sufficient auditing was not in place until it was too late.
"Anybody with a white card, which takes five hours to obtain, and the ability to get insurance was able to get in on the game," Mr Mill told AAP.
Eureka Insulation boosted its staff from 16 to 40 to meet increased demand and splashed out on advertising, marketing and stock.
The Demand Group upped its headcount from six to 20 and is now back to five, with the likelihood of shedding at least one more job.
Eureka owes about $200,000 in advertising costs directly associated with the insulation scheme.
Mr Arundell says his firm will survive but says other firms will be liable for millions of dollars and are likely to cease trading now the scheme has ended.
At least two Sydney-based insulation manufacturing firms have also closed with the loss of hundreds of workers, he said.
