School complaints: More Gillard spin

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace relations has admitted that the Rudd Government have no idea of the number of complaints received by state authorities from schools about their own stimulus package, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"This embarrassing revelation means that the claims of the Minister for Education Julia Gillard that there are few complaints about the program are hollow. In reality, her department has admitted their numbers don't include complaints received by the states,"" Mr Pyne said.

"This is particularly disingenuous because whenever she has been asked about problems with the schools stimulus package, the Minister has blamed the State Governments. Even in the Labor backbencher talking points leaked to media outlets last week, we saw that MPs were directed to blame state governments for problems,"" he said.

"What the Department has confirmed is that the complaints being dealt with by the Federal Department amount to projects worth at least $100 million in taxpayer funds. This figure would be even higher if the complaints to the states were included.

"This is $100 million worth of projects subject to complaints at the federal level alone, and a Part-time Minister who either doesn't care enough to ask states for an update on complaints, or is attempting to spin the figures to save face.

Australia deserves better than this part-time Education Minister.

September 23, 2009

Media contact:

Adam Howard