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

My question is to the Minister for Education. I refer the minister to admissions from Mr Brad Orgill, head of her BER Implementation Taskforce, that he had not read the Auditor-General’s report into the school stimulus debacle in its entirety and was yet to ask the education department for any information about how they evaluate value for money. Given that Mr Orgill has entirely undermined the credibility of the task force’s work, will the minister now move to establish a judicial inquiry into the school halls debacle with powers to subpoena documents and summons witnesses to determine how much money has been wasted and who is responsible?

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

I thank the shadow minister for his question. Let us just remind the shadow minister about the audit report and about the appointment of Mr Orgill, because of course the shadow minister was out squealing for months that an Auditor-General inquiry into Building the Education Revolution was required. Indeed, he called for it. He was squealing for months about the need for an Auditor-General inquiry. Then, when the Auditor-General did report, what the shadow minister squealed about was that the Auditor-General had not found the kinds of things that the shadow minister wanted—squeal, squeal, squeal.

The independent watchdog has spoken. The independent watchdog in his report said that there were early positive signs that Building the Education Revolution was achieving the goals for which the program was established. He admits that the shadow minister’s squealing about the Auditor-General’s report was his squealing that this was not good enough because the Auditor-General had not looked at individual complaints and had not looked at individual projects. Whilst the shadow minister was out there squealing and yapping, as he does, and implementing education cutbacks in the coalition’s policies, we were getting on with the job of supporting jobs in Australian communities and modernising schools. To make sure that dollars spent on schools were value for money, we appointed Mr Orgill, a leading Australian businessman, to lead a task force inquiring into value for money. So Mr Orgill is on the job in schools, sleeves rolled up, inquiring into value for money.

What does the shadow minister come and squeal about now? Apparently, a leading Australian businessman is not good enough for him. Let me tell you and let me tell the House, Mr Speaker, that I suspect that any Australian of judgment called to choose between Brad Orgill and the member for Sturt would pick Brad Orgill any day of the week.