BER Judicial Inquiry introduced

The Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, appealed to all members of the House of Representatives today to support the Coalition's new Bill that will launch a full judicial inquiry into the BER.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Building the Education Revolution Program Bill, if passed, will establish an inquiry with the power to subpoena documents, summons witnesses and recommend charges if appropriate.

Other Parliamentary inquiries in the Victorian, New South Wales and the Senate have seen evidence of waste and mismanagement, cost overruns, payment of secret fees, preferential treatment and misallocation of resources arising in this program, but these inquiries didn't have the necessary powers to further investigate.

"The Coalition's Judicial Inquiry will give the Australian taxpayer a full accounting of the expenditure of their funds in the school hall program, and ensure any evidence is acted upon," Mr Pyne said.

"If the Government has nothing to hide, they should support this Bill. During the election campaign, Julia Gillard promised to publish all BER costings, but this still has not occurred," he said.

The independent Members of the House of Representatives have indicated they support transparency and accountability, passing this Bill will create a crucial mechanism to forensically examine all the evidence on the BER and get the full picture of what went wrong.

Billions have potentially evaporated in this program, thousands of schools have missed out on achieving value for the money they were allocated, and within the community there is white hot anger at this lost opportunity.

This is an excellent opportunity for Members to take the Prime Minister's advice and 'let the sun shine in' on what is one of the largest examples of waste and mismanagement in the history of this country," Mr Pyne said.

October 18, 2010

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