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

There they are, coming down here looking like the economy section in the movie Flying High, having to defend the government. Like lambs to the slaughter at the next election, they will have to show up on election day and defend each of the extraordinary examples of waste and mismanagement that this government has presided over—and no worse than in the area of education. This Minister for Education has presided over catastrophic waste and mismanagement of taxpayers’ money on a scale not seen since Ronnie Biggs robbed the Royal Mail of £2.6 million in 1963. It is surprising in fact that the Minister for Education would parade herself around the press gallery, parade herself around the parliament, demanding the accolades of best at show, but really wanting the job of top dog of this government. Whether she will get it or not is a matter that we will find out by the end of the year. Whether the Prime Minister can limp through to the election and whether they will put up with him is a matter for the Labor Party. And after the election, when they lose, we will see an unholy battle, a right royal battle between those who think the Minister for Education should be top dog and those who believe that the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, or even the minister for finance should be top dog.

In education, training, child care, this government has a record of waste and mismanagement that would make anybody normal blush, but this particular minister has a thicker hide than most. Most ministers with a thinner hide would have given up by now when you think of the litany of waste and mismanagement that this minister has presided over in education. Let us list them for those poor members of the backbench who have to front up on election day in about four months time and try to defend this waste and mismanagement. Let us let them know just what they have been defending for the past 2½ years. There is a $1.7 billion blow-out in the school hall rip-off program that has been delayed again and will take longer to implement than the entire duration of World War I. This was a program that was supposed to stimulate the economy quickly. It has been delayed in the budget yet again. It will run over four years. They will be stimulating the economy three years after the so-called global financial crisis. That is how poor and poorly mismanaged the school hall rip-off program has been, a school hall rip-off program that has delivered probably less than 50 per cent value for the $16.2 billion of taxpayers’ money that has been spent.

She has also been responsible for a $1 billion blow-out in the computers in schools program, which has also been delayed. The computers in schools program will now run over six years. They managed to defeat Germany in the Second World War in less than six years, but this minister could not—

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