Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. I refer the minister to a media report that the Reed Group has been awarded a $1 million bonus for building 10 prefabricated libraries, each of which will cost almost twice as much as those built for Catholic schools in New South Wales. Does the minister agree with Kylie Gorton, President of the Parents and Citizens Association at the Stroud Public School, that, ‘We did not get value for money,’ and, ‘The government needs to be held accountable for this complete misuse of taxpayers’ funds’? Why isn’t the minister as angry as Ms Gorton and why do you not take real action to stop the rorts rather than hide behind your toothless task force?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Of course, we are still waiting for her to stand up for her electorate and particularly for the trades training centre that she seeks in Vincentia. Once again, what we are seeing this action from the opposition—except, I would have to give it to the shadow Treasurer that at least, when he is going to base his question on newspaper reports, he gets them out of the newspaper reports that day, which probably implies that the shadow Treasurer reads his newspapers every day. But what the member for Gilmore has done is base this question on a newspaper report from a number of days ago. What the member may want to know—and the problem, of course, with just reading the newspaper and then assuming that without any further research one should rely on it and use it for question time—is that the matters in that report have already been dealt with by the New South Wales department. In particular, I am advised that the New South Wales department has made it absolutely clear that the claims in that report that somehow money—those incentive payments—is being conveyed is not right. Incentive payments are there and they can be paid if projects are brought in in accordance with certain project milestones. The report also has, from my recollection, sources of estimates rather than any other source of information.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question has been asked. The Deputy Prime Minister is responding to the question. I would have thought that the House would listen.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I indicate to the member that the things that she has asserted in her question as fact are simply not correct. Can I also say to the member: I, like her and like members in her electorate, including the parent representative that she quotes, am very concerned to get value for money. That is why I, as minister, and the Rudd government have appointed the Building the Education Revolution Implementation Taskforce to assist schools with value for money. If the member wishes this matter or any other matter to be dealt by the implementation task force then she is more than welcome to take that course.

What I would say to the member in terms of the framing of her question and what I would also say to the shadow minister relating to a report in today’s paper is that I do not believe it is appropriate, whatever the opposition might think about the Building the Education Revolution, to have members of the opposition vilifying people serving on the task force and making assumptions about the task force.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt is now warned.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The task force is led by a leading Australian businessman, Brad Orgill. He is doing, in my view, a very good job. He was the leader of UBS. That is a major, major corporate appointment in this country. I think it is pretty cheap indeed, regardless of political persuasion, to be making assertions about the work of Brad Orgill. It was included in the member’s question today. It is included in quotes from the shadow minister for education in today’s newspaper. I think it is completely inappropriate and quite wrong. So, if the member wants the task force led by a very high calibre Australian to deal with any of these issues, of course she is welcome to do so.