Government will publish financials on schools but

The Government is rushing to publish financial information about schools this Friday on the My School website but continues to hide the contractual information on school hall projects, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"It seems to me a simple matter to add BER contract details to the My School website," Mr Pyne said.

"This would allow parents to access the full breakdown of exactly what occurred at their school, and see whether value for money was achieved in comparison to other schools and sectors," he said.

The My School website is the perfect vehicle to get to the bottom of the BER waste.

The Government remains in contempt of a Senate order to release this information and is ignoring one of the recommendations of their own investigation into the BER which called for the release of the data.

During the election campaign, Julia Gillard promised to enact all of the Orgill Taskforce recommendations, including releasing the BER data, but as we now know, Julia Gillard cannot be believed.

Last year, less than two weeks after announcing the new version of the My School, Peter Garrett had to humiliatingly announce a delay due to alarming statistical inaccuracies.

This new version is being rushed out with incomplete financial information, with some schools still missing details, all as a face saving exercise for the accident prone Mr Garrett.

"I would support a further delay of the 're-re-launch' so that the Government could add BER contract information," Mr Pyne said.

March 2, 2011

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