Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will talk a bit louder. Certainly in our smaller communities there is no doubt that having access to that money along the lines of the Investing in our Schools Program and the National School Pride Program, where the school councils had control of the money and, particularly those small school councils, were able to leverage off through their local parents and friends associations. What we have instead are demountable buildings on the backs of trucks being dropped off at some of these primary schools and, quite frankly, it has not been satisfactory.

The common remarks I have been getting from the school principals are that they have been happy to get some money but have been bitterly disappointed with the lack of value and the lack of transparency. Many of the schools have been worried about speaking out because they have basically been threatened by the departmental staff with, ‘You don’t want to go back down the pecking order, do you?’ I believe they have been intimidated into not speaking out on every issue they wanted to raise.

I have a couple of specific examples where people have spoken out and have contacted my office. I want to relate to the minister the experience of the Bairnsdale West Primary School, whose principal, Doug Vickers, wrote in his school newsletter quite recently:

Bairnsdale West decided that, to maximise its allocation of $2 million, we needed to design our own building rather than by a state government template. We were not encouraged to follow this method. However, our end result, our plans which have now gone to tender indicate that we’ll get a building which contains a canteen, foyer area, toilets, full-size basketball court with seating and a music room for $1 million less than the template design which was taken up by Lucknow Primary School.

Lucknow Primary School is about four kilometres away. My questions to you, Minister, really relate to the issue of delivering value for money.

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