Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

And I would make the point that his question was prefaced by this very point. He also said that the only reason he was forced to make those comments was that I was being unkind to him. Well, I always thought that accurate descriptions were very kind. and I think that the member should reflect.

Let me go to the questions. I have now got the answer to the one that was asked before that. There has been a discussion with the education authorities—the government has met with all 22 education authorities—and a paper is being finalised for tabling later this year. On recommendation 8, the EOI or expression of interest is at market now, and DEEWR has absorbed the costs.

As for his final question, in relation to recommendation 12, the master planning: the paper is under development. It has been discussed with the education authorities during early drafting. I might say that that was a recommendation I was particularly interested in. I think it is fair to say that the best value for money was obtained in circumstances in which there was active engagement between school communities and the appropriate education authorities. If one looks at what happened in Tasmania, or in South Australia—the member's own state—and mostly in the state of Victoria and certainly in Western Australia, this sort of engagement was very effective in getting value for money. I think it is also fair to say, in terms of the reports, that, where problems existed, they were mostly in New South Wales. We think it is a very important part of the ongoing process to engage the school communities, but there has to be an overall framework in terms of what we expect them to respond to. So that is the paper that is being discussed. I would also just point out that, of the 9½ thousand schools and the 24,000 projects, only a little over 300 complaints were received by the task force set up for the whole purpose of investigating complaints and recommending to government how the program could be improved for the future.

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