Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Emerging Trade Markets) Share this | Hansard source

In the final two minutes of this adjournment debate I would like to comment on the remarks from the member for Chisholm and the member for Petrie, who were standing up in here singing the praises of the BER. The member for Chisholm had the audacity to say that this was some sort of orchestrated campaign by the Australian newspaper. I would suggest that all the members of this House step onto the lawn in front of Parliament House tomorrow morning at nine o’clock and speak to some people who are coming from all over Australia and who have real concerns about the blatant waste of money under this BER program. Tomorrow there will be a mock-up of the canteen that is being constructed at Tottenham Central School. I ask all the members of this House and the public in general to decide for themselves: is that good value at $610,000? It is a canteen that will not fit a fridge, will not fit a pie warmer and does not even have enough room for the staff to operate in and serve the children.

This canteen is exactly the same one that was delivered to Toomelah Public School in northern New South Wales in my electorate for $650,000. This is a town that had its CDEP program discontinued in June. It has massive unemployment, huge social problems and high levels of mental health issues. Since the CDEP program was discontinued there have been nine attempted suicides. So I ask all members of the House to come out and speak to the people tomorrow.

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