Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question without notice is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Minister representing the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Senator Evans. Given that Prime Minister Gillard has accepted all the recommendations of the Orgill task force report into the Building the Education Revolution, when will the government compel all education authorities to publish school specific project cost data for each P21 school project?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Mason for his question. I congratulate him on his promotion and look forward to crossing swords with him in coming months. Can I first of all point out to him that responsibility for the Building the Education Revolution projects is mine not in a representational role but as the portfolio minister for DEEWR. I get all the good jobs—and I am enjoying it too.

As the parliament would be aware, the interim report from Mr Orgill’s BER Implementation Taskforce was released on 6 August 2010. It is a very informative report. I would encourage all senators with an interest in this area to have a read of it. It is very comprehensive. In that report Mr Orgill made 14 recommendations, and the government has committed to implementing all 14 of those recommendations. As you know, there will be a further report from Mr Orgill’s implementation task force in November, which will reflect the continuing work they are doing in investigating complaints, looking at questions of value for money and looking at any concerns about the project.

I indicate, directly answering the question of Senator Mason, that DEEWR has already established and met with a working party of representatives from all education authorities to progress those recommendations, and that includes the question of the publication of the costs. As you know, the task force has done a lot of work in that area of comparative costing, and that is all published in the report. But I certainly will be applying pressure to the states to make sure that that commitment is honoured.

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for his answer. How can the government claim that the BER program delivered value for money, given that the Orgill report states:

The Taskforce has not been satisfied by the various explanations as to how value for money has been calculated by many jurisdictions.

Is Mr Orgill wrong or is the Prime Minister delusional?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The report of Mr Orgill’s implementation task force is highly comprehensive. It goes through all these issues about value for money, timetable, the contracting requirements and the variance in costs between states. It is looking at things like different cost structures between states and is doing a comparative analysis of the performance between different providers, be it the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia or the New South Wales state education system. All that data is being collected. We will have a very comprehensive picture at the end of this as to the relative costs in all the states and of all the projects. That work is being done in a very comprehensive manner. We have the interim report. It is informative. When we get the full report, I think we will have a much, much better picture. That work is being done. It is being done independently and rigorously. I think that should be our first point of reference. (Time expired)

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. With the Commonwealth Auditor-General, the Orgill task force and now the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry all critical of the implementation and waste of the BER program, will the government now finally do the right thing and support the independent judicial inquiry to get to the bottom of this colossal waste of billions of taxpayers’ dollars?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The first thing I would say to the senator is: go to the 24,000 schools that are getting extra facilities. I have been to lots of them, and what I run into is a lot of very grateful schools, grateful principals and grateful school communities who are getting investment in their schools that they have not seen for many years. It may well suit the opposition to focus on the negatives, but I ask them to have more balance. It is important that we look at value for money for taxpayers. That is what the Orgill report will do in part. But I will not accept the assertion that somehow this program has not delivered great benefits to education and great benefits to employment sustainment in this country. We will get a fulsome report from the Orgill task force, but it is true, if you go to any school in Australia, that huge investment is delivering results for our children and for the school system. (Time expired)

Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It’s a waste of bloody money!

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Heffernan, Senator Brown is entitled to be heard in silence.