Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I would like to inform the Senate of how the federal Labor government’s Building the Education Revolution Program has been a great success in South Australia. The BER was announced by the federal government just over two years ago, in 2008, and it was a key part of the federal government’s response to the global financial crisis. Of the government’s $42 billion Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, the BER was the single largest element—an investment of $16.2 billion into 24,000 projects in some 9,479 schools across Australia.

In South Australia, the BER provided funding for 1,680 projects in 1,147 schools across the state. From Alberton to Ardrossan, Ceduna to the Copper Coast and from Prospect to Port Lincoln, schools across both metropolitan and regional South Australia welcomed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build new, modern, adaptable facilities. South Australia received funding of $944,797,764 from the BER and it is a testament to the vision and energy of the Rann Labor government and to the determination of the state, Catholic and independent school systems in South Australia that the opportunity that the BER provided was immediately recognised, grasped and acted upon.

The purpose of the BER was to:

...provide economic stimulus through rapid construction and refurbishment of school infrastructure and to build learning environments to help children, families and communities to participate in activities to support achievement and develop learning potential.

I can confidently say that those aims have been well and truly met in South Australia. I will get to what the BER has meant for students and school communities shortly, however I would first like to reflect on how the BER provided economic stimulus by supporting the construction industry. An article in the esteemed Adelaide newspaper the Advertiser, not usually a friend of Labor, on 3 February illustrated this. That report of the BER noted that 141 builders who registered for work with the BER were allocated one or more projects ranging from the smaller $250,000 jobs to those which cost around $4 million. Out of just 437 projects, there were 1,571 subcontractors engaged and a total of 15,182 workers employed. Of those 15,182 workers employed, 1,883 were apprentices and a further 96 were of Indigenous background.

Jobs within the building industry were not only retained but also created and schools and communities are now reaping the benefits of their new or upgraded facilities. Mr Rob Stewart, executive director of the South Australian Master Builders Association, said at the time when the BER funding was introduced that the industry was trying to come to terms with the economic slowdown. He said:

I think the outcome of that—

that is, the BER—

was it probably saved a few building contractors from going out of business.

The coordinator-general of the initiative in South Australia, Mr Rod Hook, agreed that the BER saved jobs. He said:

How many builders would have had to put people off if this work was not out there?

Since late 2009, I have had the privilege of visiting many of the schools across South Australia to represent the federal government to open the Building the Education Revolution projects. I have had the opportunity to visit Catholic, independent and state schools across metropolitan Adelaide and regional schools, including in the Riverland, and I can proudly say with my first-hand experience that South Australian schools have made the most of the government’s investments. At many of those openings I have spoken to builders, contractors and architects who have told me how the BER meant they could keep on their employees, keep their businesses going, and how they made connections and relationships with schools in their communities that were going to be relationships for the long haul. More than one builder has told me how they were surprised and dismayed at the state of our schools after years of neglect and lack of funding. They and their staff would voluntarily—often out of hours—come back to the schools where they had worked on BER projects to do small repairs, to replace taps and lights and replace paving and do other maintenance jobs because they were now a friend of that school community and just wanted to keep on helping.

I have numerous examples of positive feedback that I received at BER openings but I have chosen just a few tonight to share with the Senate. For example, Ms Belinda Provis, Principal of Adelaide’s Seymour College—a well-regarded private independent girls’ school in the electorate of Sturt—said their new Junior School Resource Centre and ICT suite that were constructed as a result of funding from the BER were ‘a wonderful addition’ to the school. Kerry White, Principal of the Holy Family Catholic Primary School in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, said that as a result of the BER their school had built an entire new classroom block that was a ‘cost effective structure with superb functionality’.

At Hillcrest Primary School in the electorate of Sturt the school community was thrilled with their new resource centre and had taken advantage of the spirit of rejuvenation at the school to build, with the support of community businesses, a community garden, which was the pride of the very multicultural community in that area. I enjoy every one of the BER openings that I attend. They are always very entertaining, but that one was more entertaining than most.

At Linden Park Schools, also in the electorate of Sturt, I was joined at a very convivial community opening of their BER facilities by the local Liberal member of the state parliament, Ms Vickie Chapman—indeed Ms Chapman has been to more than one BER opening in her electorate. I was also joined at that opening by the member for Sturt in the federal parliament. For those who do not know, that would be the Hon. Christopher Pyne MP. That would be the same Mr Christopher Pyne who voted against the Economic Stimulus Plan in this very federal parliament. No matter that he did not support the BER, and indeed has railed against it as we know, Mr Pyne turned up to this opening and was given the opportunity to say a few words. It is worth repeating some of what Mr Pyne said that evening. He said:

I am very pleased to be part of the opening of these new school buildings. This has been a tremendous effort between state government, the previous federal government, which put funds into this school, and the current federal government.

He went on to say:

A great school is made much better by having tremendous facilities.

He also said:

...and the facilities that Linden Park School now has are second to none in the state, certainly in my electorate, and it is going to be the gold standard for all the other primary schools across my electorate—from Burnside Primary right through to Dernancourt Primary. And I’m sure there’s going to be a great cavalcade of people coming through Linden Park School to see what a marvellous job you have done here in making this school even greater.

So there you have it. The Liberal member for Sturt, Mr Christopher Pyne, one of the loudest opponents of the BER, who voted against the Economic Stimulus Package, was right there, front and centre of the Linden Park Schools community at the opening of their new facilities, clamouring for some of the glory.

As I have said, I have had numerous examples of teachers, students, school councils and community members who have shared with me their joy at being able to participate in the Building the Education Revolution. I would hesitate to guess that I am probably one of the few members of parliament who have had the opportunity to celebrate the opening of a BER project with the opposition spokesperson for education at that time who has taken every opportunity to rail against the Building the Education Revolution, and of course we know he voted against the package that enabled the program to happen. It has been a bit of a highlight of my career not just to visit the BER openings but to be there with the member for Sturt.

I would like to congratulate all of the school communities in my state of South Australia who saw the wonderful opportunity that the Building the Education Revolution could provide to local schools and who made sure that they took the opportunity when it was presented to them to deliver the best possible facilities for students, teachers, parents and communities around those schools. It gives me great joy every time I go to a BER opening to speak to all of those school communities and see how enthusiastic they are about the BER, and to hear them say, ‘Please go back and tell Prime Minister Gillard how much we are grateful for what has been done for education in Australia.’