Editor's note February 8, 2018: This story has been edited in response to concerns raised by Mr Rudd. The ABC did not intend to convey that Mr Rudd ignored warnings of critical safety risks at the time or that he lied to the royal commission, which made no adverse findings against him. The ABC unreservedly apologises to Mr Rudd for any harm or embarrassment caused.

Key points: Cabinet report from April 2009 warns of "critical risks" with home insulation scheme

Cabinet report from April 2009 warns of "critical risks" with home insulation scheme It was prepared for a committee made up of the so-called "Gang of Four", including Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard

A report prepared for a cabinet committee including Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and two senior Labor ministers warned about "critical risks" of the home insulation scheme months before the full rollout.

The infamous Energy Efficient Homes Package subsidised insulation as part of an economic stimulus package rolled out in response to the global financial crisis.

The scheme was beset with cost overruns, rorting, home fires, injuries and most tragically the deaths of four young installers in separate incidents from electrocution and hyperthermia.

After the young men died the stimulus package was discontinued in February 2010.

The Abbott government established a royal commission to see whether the failures of the scheme could have been prevented and whether the government was warned of the dangers.

At the time the document was prepared the royal commission found that the department identified three 'extreme' risks: getting the contracts done in time; fraud and other legal risks; and the political impact of failures.

In the end it was the deaths of the installers that brought the scheme to a halt.

The April 6, 2009 report warns of "critical risks" associated with the program but does not specify them.

"[The Department of Environment] has undertaken a risk assessment which reveals a large number of critical risks for the Energy Efficient Homes Package," the report reads.

"Many of these risks cannot be adequately managed in the lead-up to the July 1 start date..."

The Royal Commission found at around the time the document was prepared, the departmental view was that "risk of workplace health and safety issues lay with the employer and the States and Territories", not the Commonwealth.

There had been warnings in departmental meetings of safety risks, and as the scheme rolled out established companies tried to warn the government of the dangers.

But the key figures in the government, Mr Rudd and the responsible minister Peter Garrett, have always said those warnings never reached them.

Mr Rudd told the royal commission the rollout would have been delayed had cabinet been warned of safety risks.

"Right through until February 2010 ... each of the monthly reports said that the Energy Efficiency program of the government was on track," he said.

He said he did not know why public servants had not raised safety concerns.

In a written submission to the royal commission, Mr Rudd stated that he had only received two implementation reports, written in February 2009, and that he had "no record of receipt of others subsequent to that".

The implementation report from April, obtained by the ABC, was prepared weekly by the Office of the Coordinator-General for the Strategic Priorities and Budget Committee (SPBC).

Mr Rudd, his deputy Ms Gillard, then-treasurer Wayne Swan and then-finance minister Lindsay Tanner made up the SPBC, or the so-called "Gang of Four".

At the royal commission, when Mr Rudd was asked specifically about the risk assessment undertaken by the Department of Environment, he said: "I have no familiarity with that other than that I would assume that's the normal thing a department would do".

Mr Rudd has reaffirmed to the ABC that any assertion he was warned about safety risks was untrue.

"The Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program had unprecedented access to cabinet material and made no adverse finding against Mr Rudd," he said in a statement.

"Any assertion Mr Rudd was warned about safety risks to installers, or failed to act on such warnings, is completely baseless and untrue, as determined by the commission."

Evidence presented at the royal commission shows a government determined to move as quickly as possible.

The bureaucracy was acutely aware of the potential for fraud as it struggled to devise a business plan in the space of a few months.

The commission found there was "a failure, until very late in the HIP, on the part of the Australian Government to identify and manage the risk to installers of injury and death".

The commissioner concluded the scheme was a "serious failure[s] of public administration".

The ABC has also contacted Mr Swan and Mr Tanner for a response.

Ms Gillard declined to comment.