BUILDING THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION PROGRAM
April 12, 2010
There has been a great deal of debate about the Federal Government’s investment in local primary schools under the so called Building the Education Revolution.
When the $16.2 billion program was first announced more than 12 months ago, I raised concerns about the importance of allowing local builders to contract for work and making sure that each school was in the position to secure value for money for their community. I went as far as issuing a warning in Federal Parliament that the program would lead to a waste of taxpayers’ money if the Rudd Government acted in too much of a hurry.
In its rush to shovel the money out the door we have seen schools forced to accept building designs which didn’t meet their needs and local building firms overlooked in favour of Melbourne based project managers. Now reports are starting to flood in throughout Australia of schools receiving building projects at vastly inflated prices and taxpayers are footing the bill.
As someone who is passionate about helping young people in East Gippsland to reach their potential I am a strong supporter of investing in improving facilities at our schools. But the Government has an obligation to achieve value for money and there are too many examples already of funds being mismanaged with out of town firms raking in profits.
The Federal Minister for Education continues to deny that there is any problem but the reality on the ground is completely different.
Virtually every school principal that I speak to tells me the same story. They are happy to have received funding but cannot believe how little is being done for the amount of money that has been allocated to their project.
Several East Gippsland primary schools are receiving portable buildings on the back of a truck as part of their $250,000 allocation while other schools with multi-million dollar budgets are receiving facilities which local builders tell me are inflated in price by more than 30 percent.
The only way to get a full understanding of any rip-offs is for the Federal Government to support a Judicial Inquiry and the State Government to produce all costings for each project. If both Labor Governments have nothing to hide there is no reason why the public shouldn’t have access to this information.