Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sunshine Heights Primary School in my electorate has still not received reimbursement for the outlay related to the erection of a flagpole in 2004, 2½ years after first submitting the required documents. The required supporting material was sent off in early December 2004. The school was asked to send the information again in January 2005, though no explanation was given as to what happened to the original documents. Nothing was heard from the department until recently when the department again contacted the school by email to say that whilst they had some documents, they required more material in order to reimburse the school for its costs. It was so long ago that the school administration had all but given up until the email and the staff had to take time out to search through school archives for the old newsletters and documents provided to the department 2½ years ago. This is surprising because I recently learnt that the school appears on the published list of schools approved for flagpoles as at 28 August 2006, nine months ago.

Schools like Sunshine Heights had to buy the flagpole, pay for its installation and have a plaque made and installed out of their own bank accounts. Many schools in my electorate are already disadvantaged, with more social pressures than many and with lower socioeconomic profiles than most. They have infrastructure needs like new classrooms, fixing leaking roofs and they really do not have the capacity to outlay money without reimbursement from the Commonwealth, yet because of a stunt by the then education minister in an election year, this school has had to go without approximately $1,500 of its own money for almost 2½ years. Documents recently obtained under freedom of information showed that by March this year, 3,098 schools had applied for funds, but 1,101 had not been paid because allegedly they had not provided a date for meeting the recognition requirements or because of problems with GST paperwork.

I am sure the principal, teachers and parents at Sunshine Heights Primary School will be pleased to hear that the Minister for Education, Science and Training is now relaxing the requirements from sheer embarrassment. From 1 June, schools must only submit an invoice to be paid. I have tabled a number of questions to the minister this week in order to find out how many other cash-strapped schools in my electorate have gone without funds because this federal government cannot pay the bills for its own electoral stunts. I am hoping to receive a very prompt and precise answer from the minister.