Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. I refer the minister to the guidelines for the schools stimulus debacle, specifically:

The Commonwealth reserves the right to refuse funding to a state or territory that releases information publicly about BER projects prior to the Commonwealth’s approval of projects.

That has been interpreted by many school principals and governing council chairs across Australia as meaning that their school will lose funding if they make public comment about their serious concerns with the schools stimulus debacle. Will the minister amend the guidelines and guarantee that no school principal or governing council member will suffer repercussions as a result of its representatives criticising the government?

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