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

The public would be scratching their heads today to remember a time when so much money had been so misspent, and misspent so quickly, as is being misspent through the bungled, mismanaged debacle that has become the schools stimulus spend-a-thon . The minister likes to call it the Building the Education Revolution. Some of us suspect that she would prefer to call it the Great Leap Forward rather than the Building the Education Revolution but she probably failed to get that title past the ‘hollowmen’ of the Prime Minister’s office—although she did manage to get a $3 million plaques campaign past the hollowmen of the Prime Minister’s office so that she can be remembered in perpetuity.

There is $14.7 billion being mismanaged by a minister who we used to think had too much on her plate. We used to think that in being a part-time education minister she just did not have enough time to manage her portfolio. But, since the passage of the Fair Work Bill through the parliament, what has become painfully apparent to the Australian taxpayer is that the minister cannot actually manage a program, whether it is the computers-in-schools program, which blew out from $800 million to $2.2 billion and is now delivering half and costing more than twice as much, or whether it is the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program, which was to put a trade training centre in every secondary school and is now being shared between 10 schools that cluster together to form one trade training centre. Now it is the schools stimulus debacle. Unfortunately, when it comes to the detail, the minister keeps spilling the drinks.

Our concerns revolve around many facets of this program but they can be headlined by the failure of the government to genuinely promote the regional aspect to what was supposed to be a jobs stimulus package in the regions as well as the cities, through the failure to use local businesses in many instances and through skimming by state governments, who are vacating their responsibilities now that the so-called Building the Education Revolution is in full swing. State governments realise they can rush away from the table and take what meagre resources they were going to put into capital works and leave the federal government—and the federal taxpayer—holding the baby.

We are concerned about profiteering by private enterprise and individuals who are inflating their tender contract figures simply because demand and supply have been suspended by this program. There is simply not enough capacity in the system to supply the demand that the government is asking of the private sector. When the private sector say to government bureaucrats, ‘We simply have not got the capacity to do this,’ they say: ‘We have to get this money out the door. We have to rush this money out the door, so you will simply have to do it.’ The private sector respond, ‘We cannot afford it,’ and are told, ‘Well, put up your contract figures and you will be able to do it.’ That is exactly what is happening through private companies. Whether they are profiteering deliberately or simply because bureaucrats are encouraging them to do so, there is profiteering.

We are concerned about the poorly targeted spending. It does not take into account the needs of schools and local communities. Instead, it insists on a centrally planned, centrally controlled template of options. Schools are being presented with these with sometimes one day to make the decision about whether they wish to take the template from the federal government, even though there might be real infrastructure that they need to have in their schools.

We are also concerned about the waste and mismanagement of projects where literally billions of taxpayers’ dollars are being spent on ‘Versace’ stuff, to quote one expert in the field. Those wasted dollars are hard-earned taxes created by Australian taxpayers to be used on genuine infrastructure but we are seeing those dollars wasted and disappearing.

The only solution to this morass of mismanagement and this wanton waste is to refer the entire management of the program to the Auditor-General to determine exactly what is happening and what needs to happen to make the program work. Nobody on this side of the House begrudges the opportunity for schools to improve their infrastructure. But we do not believe—and neither should the government—that means waste and mismanagement should be tolerated. The Auditor-General will get to the bottom of exactly what is going on with the so-called Building the Education Revolution.

I turn to some of the details of these failures. On the issue of skimming by state governments, I quote the Prime Minister in a press conference he gave on 3 February 2009:

This Government will adopt a zero tolerance approach to any State Government whatever its political complexion, to any substitution of effort, let’s be very clear about that.

How does the minister explain to the House why in Victoria state government promises made at election time—under the rubric of schools policy—to build new infrastructure, new schools and new refurbishments in existing schools are being taken off the table right across Victoria as the state government realises its chance to run from the field and leave the field to the Commonwealth to pick up the pieces?

How does she explain the South Australian government budget 10 days ago reducing capital spending by 12 per cent? In a state like South Australia, that represents about $8 million but most parents and grandparents would be expecting that every year capital spending in South Australia would be increasing because of the needs of the public school system. They would not expect it to fall by 12 per cent. Coincidentally, of course, it comes at the same time as the federal government is putting $1 billion into South Australia for the so-called Building the Education Revolution. They are clearly skimming federal taxpayers’ money and it is the minister’s responsibility to do something about it. If she will not do something about it, she should ask the Auditor-General to do something about it.

Then there is the whole issue of preferred tenderers. The member for Bradfield raised in this House on 17 March a very good example in his own electorate—Wahroonga Public School. He is a very good member.

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