PM covered up BER failure

The Prime Minister and overseer of the Building the Education Revolution programme must apologise for her cover-up of the true size of the problem and the billions of dollars wasted, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

“The Deputy Chair of the Government’s own BER Taskforce told an inquiry yesterday that the roll-out lacked oversight and the systemic problems were not picked up,” Mr Pyne said.

“However with the many media reports and dozens of questions asked by the Opposition during the roll-out, Julia Gillard as the former education minister always insisted the problems were isolated,” he said.

“Ms Gillard would claim the media reports were fabricated and if that did not work then claim the Opposition was making up the examples raised in Parliament.

“The public now knows the waste and mismanagement was widespread.

“The Prime Minister again misled the Australian people and failed in her first duty as a Minister, to properly administer taxpayers’ money.

“Unfortunately for all Australians, the Prime Minister’s modus operandi of criticising the media and claiming the Opposition is making things up is now playing out with the carbon tax,” Mr Pyne said.

March 22, 2012