Transcript - 2GB Ray Hadley - 8 June 2010

SUBJECTS: Closing Schools receiving BER funding; Awards to Education Department Officials running school hall rip-off

Ray Hadley: I mentioned at the top of the show; 15 Queensland schools facing closure next year have been spruced up with four and a half million dollars from the Federal Government and the BER. Now, there is a misnomer out there that all these problems that we talk about on this radio program are being encountered in New South Wales. As I said on the Today program on the Nine Network today if you go to Northern Territory, have a look at what happening in Darwin, Western Australia; what's happening in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. It's all the same. It's a massive, massive waste of Australian taxpayer's money. In fact I would venture to say the biggest waste of money that's been seen in this country since federation.

The Federal Shadow Education Minister, Christopher Pyne is on the line. G'day, Christopher.

Christopher Pyne: Good morning, Ray.

Hadley: And so it goes on. 15 schools; it's only $4.5 million. When I say it's only $4.5, it's a drop in the bucket compared to $16 billion, but it goes on and on and on.

Pyne: Yes, it is a disgrace. The $4.5; we have to find out from Julia Gillard whether that money has actually been spent or whether the Queensland Government is sitting there holding onto it because I think you'll find that some of it's been earmarked and hasn't been spent. Some of it has been spent and can't be gotten back, but whatever has not been spent on a school that is closing must be given back to the federal taxpayer.

What Queensland has done, has said, "We've got this silly Government in Canberra. Let's tell them we need money for every single school even if we're going to close them. They'll be daft enough to give us the money because they don't seem to care about what's going on out there. We'll get the money and put it in our own bank account and we'll earn interest on it and we'll have it there to use at some time in the future when we decide to use it. That's not what federal taxpayers money should be used for. And it's not good enough that Julia Gillard's spokesperson; she's not even responded to this story herself, Ray. She's got some poor flunky in her office to go out there and say, "Oh, these are matters for the Queensland State Government."

Hadley: That's a shift, Christopher because before we got the diatribe about "this is a wonderful initiative; 25,000 projects, 9,000 schools," and so it goes on. Now instead of that we have, "Oh its New South Wales or Queensland's fault. Talk to them not us."

Pyne: That's right. Now Julia Gillard is backing away from her program by sending out a spokesperson who of course, we can't really attack. It's not that poor person's job to be responsible for this program. It's Julia Gillard. Julia Gillard needs to tell us what she's doing to get the money back from the Queensland or New South Wales or South Australia or whatever State Government who are mothballing schools, but keeping the money anyway. I mean, this is where the Opposition says there are savings that can be made; this is what we're talking about.

Hadley: I'm still waiting with some anticipation for Brad Orgill's report in August, but by gee, having spoken to him again recently I'm starting to get more and more worried that he may have lost the focus of what his taskforce is all about. And it was simply to - we've already had the auditor general look at value for money, we've already had that report federally- Brad Orgill is simply there to see whether we got value for money. Not whether it stimulated the economy, not whether it did this or that; did we get value for money? That's the main aim of the taskforce.

Pyne: Well, I'm very concerned about what I'm hearing Brad Orgill saying, because he appears to be mouthing the same platitudes about the program that Julia Gillard is mouthing. Now, I thought his job was to be the independent umpire and say whether we got value for money or not. But instead he keeps repeating that this stimulated the economy, therefore it must be a successful program. No, nobody thinks the school infrastructure is bad, but nobody wants to be ripped off either. And it's the job of the Minister for Education to make sure that taxpayers are not ripped off because you or Mum and Dad at the local school or the school principal; it's not their job to keep an eye on the entire 16 billion dollar spending. That's Julia Gillard's job.

And I noticed this morning in another newspaper where the Department of Education officials have been given an award at the end of last year for their handling of the school stimulus debacle.

Hadley: This was in the Canberra Times on the weekend and one of my listeners on 2CC alerted me to it and it's been repeated today in the Australian Newspaper, keeping up their excellent work for people who didn't hear it. Now this is what they've written today; "Julia Gillard has refused to say whether officials at her apartment deserved an award for rolling out the school stimulus program, which is subject to a series of inquiry into waste and mismanagement. The officials responsible for the rolling out of the BER were handed one of the department's annual awards for excellence last month. The Opposition seized on the award yesterday to accuse the Government of being badly out of touch. The Education Minister refused to say whether she thought the officials from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations deserved the award for the 16 point two billion dollar program." It is an award from the DEEWR that's up to them to say.

Pyne: That's the Department of Education and Workplace Relations.

Hadley: They've given this part of the department an award for the greatest farce we've seen since federation in terms of a waste of money.

Pyne: But what was interesting about that is a few months ago Julia Gillard was standing up in Question Tim and accusing the Opposition and you and the Australian and others of fabricating all of these stories and saying it was the most marvellous program that had ever happened. And now she's sending a spokesperson out to defend herself against the Courier Mail and she's saying to the Australian today that it's not up to her that it was a deserved award. It was up to the department.

Hadley: Ok.

Pyne: She's running a mile from this program, which used to be her signature tune. Let me play devil's advocate.

Hadley: Let's pretend the hope at the side, Brad Orgill, as I keep telling him he is, in August says, "This is diabolical. The non-government sector has done an outstanding job at delivering value for money. I'm afraid the New South Wales, Queensland, Victorian, Northern Territory, South Australian and Western Australian Governments have dropped the ball." Just say he says that. You and I both know by August they would have spent 14 of the 16 billion.

Pyne: That's exactly right.

Hadley: So it's all gone. So do they go to Bovis Lend Lease and say "Hey, boys. Give us that four billion back will you?"

Pyne: Well, this is the real farce about this program. On July the first, Julia Gillard's confirmed that at least two and a half billion dollars is going to be paid out, and the taskforce is going to be reporting in August. Any common sense person would say, "Why don't we wait until August to see what the recommendations are so that we don't waste anymore taxpayer's money." But this Government's saying, "Let's get this out there as quickly as we can." I mean, who is running the show?

Hadley: The lunatics. Thanks very much for your time.

Pyne: Pleasure.

Ends.