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

If only you could read the standing orders, Bill, you might be a bit better off. Can I turn to the $1.7 billion blow-out in the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program. There is real scandal involved in this blow-out because the Deputy Prime Minister told this House that the reason there had been a $1.7 billion blow-out was the enormous take-up of the program by schools. She led this House to believe that the reason for the blow-out was a much greater take-up of the program by schools than had been expected. She said in this parliament on 10 September:

They—

being the opposition—

have tried to create the imagery that somehow builders are inflating prices and the government has had to tip in more money. That is simply not true. More money is going into this program because it is going gangbusters, because more schools want to be in this program.

That, unfortunately, was a bare-faced lie and she misled the parliament. The Auditor-General, reporting in the last month into the BER concerns on page 24, said

Ultimately, the need for the additional funding provided by the Government in August 2009 arose from most schools having sought the maximum payments available. It did not flow from any deficiencies identified in the procurement processes or other activities of Educational Authorities in delivering the program, nor was it the result of more schools seeking to participate than had originally been forecast.

The Auditor-General directly, specifically and with intent clearly rebuked the Deputy Prime Minister and made it absolutely clear that what she had told the House was utterly untrue.

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