Government should release all School Hall costings

Julia Gillard's desire to expose underperforming schools by displaying results on the Myschool website should be expanded to include the breakdown of the School Hall program costings for each primary school, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Parents want to see that their child's school is performing well, taxpayers want to see that the borrowed funds going into the School Hall program aren't being wasted on extravagant management fees, state government skimming and price gouging," Mr Pyne said.

"The Labor Government claims the Building the Education Revolution is an open and accountable program, often highlighting the fact that all the New South Wales costings were obtained by the NSW State Opposition under freedom of information," he said.

While NSW BER rorts and rip-offs dominate the media, other states costings remain shrouded in secrecy.

I challenge Ms Gillard to make available the breakdown of costings for all projects in all primary schools in Australia.

If this program is truly achieving value for money in the majority of schools and the rorts are isolated, as Ms Gillard claims, lets see the proof,"" Mr Pyne said.

March 28, 2010

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