Joint Transcript - Berridale - 12 April 2010

JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR AND THE HON. CHRISTOPHER PYNE MHR, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, APPRENTICESHIPS AND TRAINING

BERRIDALE

Subjects: Waste and mismanagement of the 'Building the Education Revolution' programme.

E&OE........................................................................................................................

TONY ABBOTT:

It's very good to be here in Berridale. I want to thank Christopher Pyne, the Shadow Minister for Education for coming out with me today. I want to thank Fiona and the other members of the school community who've come out to convey to Christopher and myself just how they feel about what's happened here at this school.

You've all seen the building which has gone in for $850,000, it's little better than a demountable, it's a pre-fabricated structure, it doesn't look like it will last. You compare what the school has got for $850,000 now with the very substantial customised permanent structure that they got for $300,000 just a couple of years ago, it is obviously a rip-off and when the school goes through the kind of add-ons that were built into the figure - the $9,000 for a few square metres of concreting, the $8,000 for an access road which was always there and is just a dirt track anyway - plainly, money has disappeared into a black hole. Rip-off after rip-off, money disappearing into the black holes, no answers from state or federal governments, the local federal member refusing to come and visit this school, it's just not good enough, but sadly it appears to be typical of a government that can't be trusted with public money.

I've got here a hundred letters from concerned local people, obviously I'll be taking these to Parliament House when Parliament resumes but I think the message that's coming from Berridale and from many other school communities, because these rip-offs are not confined just to Berridale and one or two other cases. The difference is that the people of Berridale have been prepared to speak out because they've refused to be cowed and intimidated by the public pressure from the educational authorities to keep quiet. So I might ask Christopher to say a few words.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Ok, thanks Tony. Well firstly, can I thank the community here at Berridale for inviting us to come along and have a look at their school buildings and for their courage in standing up for their school community. Tony has covered the issue with respect to Berridale. What we need, of course, is a judicial inquiry into the whole of the school hall rip-off programme. Only a judicial inquiry can use their powers to summon witnesses, to subpoena documents and to get answers that we're not getting in Question Time or in politics from Julia Gillard.

We've seen over many months that we have a Minister for Education who is living in a parallel universe all of her own, refusing to accept that there is a problem with the school hall rip-off programme, simply dismissing all critics and yesterday she demonstrated yet again that she really doesn't understand education or how schools work when she called on parents to essentially be strike-breakers and conduct the NAPLAN national literacy and numeracy tests in schools if teachers wouldn't do it.

The Australian Education Union is meeting today to talk about whether they will conduct those tests and Julia Gillard called on parents to intervene. Now, any parent would know, any parent would know that the relationship in schools between teachers and parents is one of working together constructively for their children's benefit. It's not about creating division in school communities and Julia Gillard on the school hall rip-off programme has been living in this parallel universe for months and yesterday demonstrated why she shouldn't be the Minister for Education when she called on parents to intervene in schools in a very destructive and quite dangerous way.

TONY ABBOTT:

Fiona?

FIONA SUTHERN:

I'd just like to thank Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne for coming to the school. To be able to have members of Parliament attend the school and listen to our concerns is much appreciated.

When the school first was told that we had access to grant funds of $850,000 we were ecstatic. We thought of all the wonderful things we could do with it. Having been aware that a library should've only been worth $285,000, the remainder of the funds we knew could be utilised to turn the old library into a computer lab and address major fire concerns we've got with the infants department.

We have in possession plans for this library with the fire exit door on it as we'd requested with solar panels as we'd requested, with water tank as we had requested, signed plans, stamped plans and yet coming in on the back of three trucks was this. No water tank, we'd asked for double-glazed windows, we've got louvre windows. Everybody knows this morning was freezing. We've got unflued gas heaters, those louvred windows must remain open because of the unflued gas heaters and it's going to be freezing for our children in that library.

We've got no fire exit door which we should have and so now we have to battle over two buildings. We don't have the remainder of the funds because this should've only cost $385,000 came in at $908,000. So, we've got to battle with this to try and have the safety issues addressed with this one and continue to apply for grants to have the safety issues addressed with the infants department.

We need an audit. It's not good enough to send us spreadsheets. A lot of us have financial backgrounds, anybody can produce a spreadsheet. We want to see copies of actual payments going out to contractors and they must be able to account for $908,000 because we are sure that we will find if they do that, that there are major holes, gaps. There's a hole in the bucket somewhere, because that's not worth a million dollars. So thank you, take our concerns back, we'd really appreciate it.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, do you say that on balance, nationally, the BER has been a failure both as a stimulus and a service to schools?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, it certainly hasn't been a stimulus to local communities because the money has invariably been given to outside contractors and it certainly hasn't been value for money. I think that if we've got $8 billion worth of value for $16 billion worth of spending, we'd be lucky.

QUESTION:

So, fifty per cent return?

TONY ABBOTT:

If that. I mean, nearly all of the examples that we have looked at have involved a square metre cost of about $3,000-$4,000 and if you look at any of the building guides, they say that the average cost of school construction should be more like $1,500 a square metre. So, it does look like it has been appallingly bad value for money.

Thank you.

[ends]