Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Public Security and Policing) Share this | Hansard source

For something completely different I am going to speak to the House about my concerns over the BER program. First of all, I congratulate Berwick Primary School council president Jason Barlow, Belgrave South Primary School council president Steve Bills, Berwick Lodge Primary School council president Richard Power, and I cannot forget the Principal of Berwick Lodge Primary School, Henry Grossek. They have been staunch in their outright rejection of the BER process and the rip-offs and rorts associated with it. An article by Kimberley Seedy titled ‘Belgrave South students left in the lurch by building delays’ said:

The school received $2.5 million for the project

…            …            …

Steve Bills—

the school council president—

said the entire school community was frustrated by the process. Construction was scheduled to start last December and five classes were moved from the site that will house the new centre.

It was only when we got the local media involved that all of a sudden we had a construction date. The article continued:

Mr Bills said he was angry new buildings had already been built at independent and private schools while they were still waiting. He said there was no flexibility in the building project, and there were many local builders who could have done the work quicker and cheaper.

An article by Jade Lawton of 6 May 2010 quoted Henry Grossek, who said:

… schools were getting poor quality “Bi-lo barns” at exorbitant prices.

At his school they were initially told to rip down a brick gymnasium that had wooden floors and replace it with concrete floors and something not as good.

I have the BER Update from the Berwick Primary School. They are absolutely outraged that their supposedly $2 million project is an absolute rip-off. I have seen what is being built for that money—remembering the school already has the land—and the building being constructed, I think, would cost no more than half a million dollars at best. We took the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, and the national media with us and I can say that everyone was shocked over what was happening there.

I do not know how many times we have to ask the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to intervene. Henry Grossek was assured in a meeting in May last year that the issues would be resolved. They are not being resolved in La Trobe electorate. Remember, this is parents’ taxes at work. It is a disgrace. The government must intervene and must get these situations urgently resolved.

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