4BC

SUBJECTS: BER Orgill Taskforce Report

Gary Hardgrave: Christopher this thing is just a lot of rubbish isn’t it?

Christopher Pyne: Well Friday is always rubbish day for the federal government. They always try and take out the trash on a Friday afternoon in the hope that people will forget about it because people will be thinking about the weekend Gary and what they’ve done is they’ve rushed out this report from Brad Orgill this afternoon. Now you have to remember that Brad Orgill is the governments hand picked investigator into the building the education revolution school halls debacle. He was chosen by Julia Gillard and even he has found that $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money has been wasted in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

Hardgrave: So it’s just in three states that $1.5 billion has been blown away?

Pyne: That’s just in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, just in the eastern states and Julia Gillard expects us to believe that even though she couldn’t deliver a school hall programme, she can apparently deliver the greatest change to our economy since federation in the form of a carbon tax.

Hardgrave: Well we’re using that “c word”, we’re trying to avoid it, but we can’t avoid it because its going to be a way of life after Sunday, but Christopher Pyne if the Building the Education Revolution has wasted $1.5 billion across three states it is true say that state government schools that’s where there has been big project management costs. I guess state bureaucracies sending the bill to Australian taxpayers that’s what has happened isn’t it?

Pyne: Julia Gillard was the Minister for Education. She set it up and she decided that is how taxpayers’ money should be spent and she gave away responsibility for this and always blamed the states but the bottom line is that it was federal taxpayers money, she was the federal minister for education when it happened and therefore she bares responsibility. What it shows as you pointed out at the beginning when you introduced me is that at public schools, they paid anything up to 60% more for exactly the same building that has being built down the road at the non-government school.

Hardgrave: Can we put this another way? For every dollar that was spent, another sixty additional cents had to be spent on the project management of that dollar?

Pyne: Every dollar that was spent, 60 cents more was spent in a public school for the same programme.

Hardgrave: How come Catholic schools and the Catholic education system can build a hall cheaper than state governments?

Pyne: Well that is a very good question and the Brad Orgill Taskforce tried to very generously suggest that in New South Wales it was because the programme was rushed out faster than elsewhere and they said that was worth about 4%. But even the Orgill Taskforce by adding a premium of 4% for speed still had to admit that 60% was wasted in public schools in comparison to Catholic and Independent schools.

Hardgrave: But Christopher Pyne you and I both know is that money has been siphoned off from the building of schools and put into the consolidated revenue of state government departments all over Australia.

Pyne: Exactly right. What’s happened is the state governments have thought that the teachers left the classroom with an open lolly jar on the front desk and nobody will find out where this money ends up. And we have seen absurd administrative charges from state governments, from private operators, profiteering, gouging and the loser of course at the end of the day is always the Australian taxpayer.

Hardgrave: Oh well there’s always plenty of money to borrow from China for the next one. Thanks for your time Christopher Pyne. Christopher Pyne, Shadow Education Minister.

Pyne: Thanks

ENDS