Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I say to the member that if he wants this example looked at I would be very happy to have the department look at it. As I indicated to the parliament as recently as yesterday, there is a dedicated audit squad in New South Wales that is looking at cases as they are referred. Indeed, even before this parliament was sitting this week or last week, the audit squad was out checking on value for money. It has already checked 102 schools, and that process to verify value for money goes on.

Can I also say to the member that, when we investigate claims made by members of the opposition in this place, we often find that people are not comparing apples to apples in terms of cost. I understand how that can happen. When a local builder is asked to quote they might quote to fit-out stage, because that is what they are used to quoting, but not give a quote that includes all of the internal fittings in the way that the Building the Education Revolution program does. So we often find that the figures given to us are not ‘apples to apples’ quotes. The member obviously wants this looked at.

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