Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about Gordon East Public School in my electorate. Last year I asked a question of the then Minister for Education about the Building the Education Revolution works at Gordon East Public School. In essence, I asked why it was that the school was facing such high building costs. This followed concerns raised with me by parents at the school who thought it was surprising that, for an allocation of $2 million, they were to receive only four classrooms.

The response I received to my question was rather dismissive. In fact, the then Minister for Education put to me that I should apologise to the principal of the school for having the temerity to raise the issue. Therefore I was, as you may appreciate, Mr Deputy Speaker, interested to see what might be said by the Orgill inquiry—the Building the Education Revolution Implementation Taskforce—when it released its report in December 2010. Just as I was interested, so were members of the Gordon East Public School community, and particularly the P&C.

I take a moment to congratulate the P&C of Gordon East Public School on the commitment they make to working as volunteers to advance the interests of the school and the school community, particularly the students. Like so many parents on parents and citizens bodies around Australia, they do a terrific job. It is volunteer work. The contribution they make is tremendous and should be acknowledged.

It was a sad fact that the Orgill inquiry report rated Gordon East Public School zero out of 10 for cost. The finding of the Orgill inquiry—that is, Minister Gillard’s handpicked inquiry—was that the project at Gordon East Public School did not represent value for money.

These matters should be put on the record, and they are, but the important question now is: what will happen next? I have met with the P&C of Gordon East Public School. They make the point that some important things at the school could be done if the matter were to be properly rectified. The Orgill inquiry makes some recommendations as to rectification. For example, it cites a covered walkway and solar cells as part of rescoping additions. So I use this opportunity to call for a constructive way forward to ensure that Gordon East Public School and its school community be dealt with appropriately. Now that it has been confirmed that taxpayers did not get good value for money, let us see whether we can rectify the problem and get it solved.

See this speech in context