BER freeze must occur before taskforce reports

"Julia Gillard should immediately freeze the allocation of the remaining $5.5 billion in school hall funding until her own taskforce, commissioned to investigate value for money issues, hands her the report in August," Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"Ms Gillard's position defies all logic. The Minister claims her taskforce has not yet uncovered any problems and has made no recommendations, therefore she will go ahead with the allocation of the remaining $5.5 billion in funding in July, yet the taskforce is not due to report until August," Mr Pyne said.

"The Minister could immediately prevent further waste by freezing funding and awaiting the report of her own investigative body. If Mr Orgill hasn't found evidence of the systemic rorting, waste and mismanagement, then he isn't looking hard enough," he said.

If, on the other hand, Minister Gillard actually believes that there are no problems plaguing the school hall rip-off then she should be happy to meet with parents from the Tottenham Central School who are attending a rally against the waste of taxpayer's dollars in the BER, to be held outside Parliament House in Canberra tomorrow at 9:15am.

Ms Gillard can then explain to the rally why she considers the 8x3 metre Tottenham Central School canteen, built under the school hall rip-off program and costing $24,000 a square metre, is an example of good value for money.

"The Opposition is willing to offer bipartisan support for an immediate freeze of the school hall program until the taskforce has reported," Mr Pyne said.

June 1, 2010

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