George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was in Queensland. BER projects in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria overpaid for buildings by more than 25 per cent on average compared to Catholic schools and by 55 per cent compared to independent schools. The Australian, reporting on the subject back in 2011, reported:

The third and final report into the BER, conducted by former investment banker Brad Orgill, has found Victorian and NSW have not delivered value for money for public schools under the program with public schools charged an average of up to 60 per cent more for school buildings, despite no differences in quality.

I could go on and on about this waste of taxpayers' money that the Labor Party has engaged in when it comes to the education sector. Another article from The Australian, from August 2013, notes:

… in the 935 days between becoming prime minister on December 3, 2007, and Julia Gillard's coup of June 24, 2010, Rudd left Australians with at least $153 billion in unfunded fiscal burdens while wasting $100bn of the community's resources.

Let's move onto Labor's plan. It has already been panned by experts. Megan O'Connell, policy program director from the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University, one of our premier education policy institutes, wrote just the other day:

The plan has sound aims of creating a high-quality, high-equity education system. However, by treading the safe path, Labor's plan will not produce the learners we need for our future prosperity.

We know that the old Labor pattern of just throwing money at it has not worked in the past because, as education expenditure has increased, our academic results have fallen. We can see that because, from 1987-88 to 2011-12, Commonwealth and state and territory spending on education increased by 100 per cent but student enrolment only grew by 18 per cent and student outcomes declined. (Time expired)

See this speech in context