Government must table BER costings in the Senate

The Gillard Government must table all Building the Education Revolution costings today or risk defying the will of the Australian Senate.

"Last week the Senate passed a Coalition motion calling on the Government to table all BER costings by today, Tuesday 23^rd of November," said Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education.

"The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, promised during the election campaign that Labor would publish all costings as per the recommendations of the Orgill Taskforce Interim report," Mr Pyne said.

"Now, months later, there has been no move to produce the costings. In fact the Government claims they don't have access to the data, despite having to approve every BER project," he said.

If the Government fails to produce the BER costings today, it will be another Labor broken promise to add to a long list.

The Coalition is building a case to convince crossbench Members and Senators that the school hall program needs the close scrutiny of a full judicial inquiry.

"If the Government refuses to table costings, in direct defiance of the Senate, it will be a strong indication that Labor has something to hide," Mr Pyne said.

November 23, 2010

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