A senior bureaucrat has rejected claims he threatened to have an adviser sacked for raising safety flaws in the Rudd government's disastrous home insulation program.
Will Kimber, an assistant director in the program, also denies he bullied and harassed technical adviser Dr Troy Delbridge.
Dr Delbridge has told a royal commission in Brisbane that Mr Kimber threatened to have him sidelined for pursuing safety concerns.
But under cross-examination by counsel assisting Keith Wilson on Friday, Mr Kimber denied the pair had had a personality clash.
Mr Kimber said he had always treated Dr Delbridge with respect, including when he raised safety concerns.
"He raised issues of (occupational health and) safety with me, yes," Mr Kimber said.
"(But) I did not say to him safety is not our concern.
"I did not believe safety was going to be dealt with by other agencies."
Mr Kimber said it was his understanding that Dr Delbridge was sacked from the federal environment department over performance issues.
Then acting branch head Aaron Hughes has told the inquiry that Dr Delbridge's one-year contract was terminated after four months for failing to meet performance requirements.
There were reports Dr Delbridge had taken unauthorised interstate travel, was regularly late for work and wore cycling clothes around the office, he said.
In his explosive testimony, Dr Delbridge also claimed he'd been told the costings for the scheme were done on the back of a napkin by a senior Labor politician, possibly prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Mr Rudd and his Labor colleagues Peter Garrett and Mark Arbib will front the royal commission next week.
The $20 million inquiry is investigating what advice the government received about the scheme and whether the deaths of four young men could have been avoided.
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