John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take your interjection, Senator Polley. I have never been to the opening of one of those school buildings. I refuse to go to one. I was not going to say that these were not expensive. I could take you out to Tottenham in the central west of New South Wales—literally in the centre of New South Wales—and show you the $600,000 school kiosk. I could take you to a little town called Kingstown, between Bundarra and Bendemeer, and show you the $330,000 building that is basically eight metres by 10 metres—$330,000 would build you a lovely four bedroom brick veneer home. It is a pity that this government has wasted so much money—not only taxpayers' money but borrowed money—on so many schemes. Imagine if they could have poured more of this money into the NDIS, into an investment of those people in Australia with a disadvantage of some sort, which would make their life so much better. Sadly, they did not, but the people will judge that come 14 September. I know how angry and annoyed they are, especially in rural areas, about the waste of money and the building of the $269 billion debt. If only we could have spent that money wisely. A lot of that money could have gone into the NDIS, and this scheme would have been up and running and be far more efficient than a lot of the money that has been wasted.