Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

One each. But the school does desperately need something. They have identified what they need and it is better accommodation for their teachers. The article goes on to report that the two teachers who work at this school are living in mining dongas, or transportable huts, which lack telephones or even, in one case, an indoor shower and toilet. One might say that those are harsh conditions which most Australians would find it a challenge to live in. What does the Rudd Labor government say to this remote community school? ‘You need another classroom.’ I think not. If supporting these teachers with accommodation is not a better use of the $250,000 that the school will receive, it is hard to imagine what is.

But it saddens me to say that my home state of Western Australia does not appear to be alone in dealing with the bungling, the inflexibility and the poor spend of this $14.7 billion fiasco. It would seem that yet again, as with most Labor policy, ideology wins over practicality or common sense, and once again it is the Australian taxpayer who will be footing the bill. Another media report in today’s Australian, entitled ‘Schools merger threat’, details how the Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends President, Jenny Branch, has expressed her concerns that Building the Education Revolution program funds ‘were used to exert undue pressure on parents and schools to quickly accept a major rationalisation of schools in Hobart’s north’. Here is another example, this time reported in the Brisbane Courier-Mail: an undercover playground with concrete floors and no doors was to cost $1.8 million under the Rudd government’s program. The list goes on.

I was listening to a radio program today which claimed to have received 24 complaints from schools regarding their projects. One has to wonder how many more schools are too afraid to speak up for fear of having this funding ripped from them. To quote Alan Jones from his radio program:

So this is a so-called revolution which is hopelessly lacking in detail and throwing money around willy-nilly for gymnasiums and halls, without asking whether the school where they are to be built may just happen to need—

for example—

more maths teachers instead.

That is not effective spending. That is ineffective spending of taxpayers’ money, and it is because of this litany of complaints that the coalition has called for an urgent review of the program. But even from the United States, the Deputy Prime Minister could still be heard keeping the Labor spin machine in overdrive, claiming that the education revolution has a focus on transparency. Well, it must be a very murky form of transparency! While the Labor Party’s spin machine rolls on, the only people who are losing out are Australian students and Australian schools. This is bureaucracy gone mad. It is quite clear that the nation’s chief bureaucrat, the Prime Minister, is extremely comfortable with how things are proceeding. I can tell you that the coalition are not. (Time expired)