School Hall rip-off becomes School Hall-gate

The Rudd Government has defied a Senate order and refused to hand over information containing school hall program quarterly reports claiming it was not in the public interest to do so, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"The Assistant Treasurer, Senator Nick Sherry, goes on to say in his response to the Senate that the publication of the material could damage the relations with the states. Clearly there is highly controversial information within this data that the Government cannot afford to release," Mr Pyne said.

"The School Hall rip-off has moved on now from a monumental stuff-up, to a deliberate Government cover-up to save face. The refusal of hand over reports is unquestionably an indication that there is something to hide," he said.

If around half of the $16.2 billion has evaporated through rorting, price gouging, waste and mismanagement, then it is the biggest example of gross financial negligence by a Government in the history of this country. The only difference between this program and the insulation disaster is 4 deaths and 120 house fires.

The recent Auditor-General report did not investigate rorts, but included data showing around 40 per cent of principals thought they did not get value for money.

The Implementation taskforce established by the Minister for Education is touring schools in a blatant public relations exercise, hiring media advisers before forensic accountants. No one is looking at the raw data, and the Government is afraid of releasing it.

The Australian public deserves to know exactly how much money has been wasted in this program.

"If elected this year, the Coalition will begin a full judicial inquiry into the school hall rip-off, and we will reallocate funds directly to schools to be managed by principals and school councils," Mr Pyne said.

May 14, 2010

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Adam Howard

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