Joint transcript with Senator the Hon Eric Abetz, Senator Michael Ferguson and Andrew Wilkie MP

SUBJECTS: Collinsvale School Closure

Christopher Pyne: Well ladies and gentlemen I am pleased to be here as the Federal Shadow Minister for Education with my parliamentary colleagues Eric Abetz and Michael Ferguson and also Andrew Wilkie the Local Member for Dennison and thank you to Ray for asking me to come.

Either the state Labor government is duplicitous or incompetent or probably both because they would never have gone down the track of shutting down these schools knowing that they had spent the BER money already in these schools unless they had no regard for how tax payers dollars are spent or essentially duplicitous from the outset knowing that they were going to close these schools. In other states like Queensland when they knew they were going to be closing schools, or thought that they might they didn’t spend the BER money, they held on to it with the support of the Federal Government to ensure that no money was wasted. In Tasmania where apparently there has been a list of these schools circulating for some time, the state Labor-Greens government went ahead with building tax payer’s buildings in these schools, only to now be closing them down. It is utterly incompetent and the State Labor-Greens Government stands condemned. As a federal member of parliament, I can tell you that I will do everything I can, as a member of the opposition to ensure that the BER money must be paid back by the Labor-Greens State Government because if we can recover the $13.5 million, it makes the savings from closing these schools redundant and as a consequence we can keep the schools open. The number one priority of the Federal Opposition and the State Liberal Opposition here is to keep these schools open, and if by using our federal pressure to get that money back we therefore have the outcome of saving all of these parents and students schools we will be glad to do so. So that’s why I am here, I’m going to Hobart, I’m going to Launceston, I’m going to Devonport, to bang the drum essentially, to say to the State Labor-Greens Government that the Federal Opposition is going to stand full square behind these schools communities and demand our money back to stop the closures.

 Journalist: You say that the BER money should be paid back, but you have the State Education Minister saying they the state aren’t obliged to, how is the Federal Government going to get it back?

Christopher Pyne: Well look I don’t think the state education minister knows or has the faintest idea about what he is doing. He said that six days before the budget he didn’t even know that there were schools going to be closed. I think that Andrew Wilkie makes a good point if Nick McKim isn’t running education is Tasmania, who exactly is and I don’t think that Nick McKim really knows whether the money should be paid back or not. I can tell you that part of the contract that the State Government signed with the Federal Government included a clause that if the schools were to be closed down the money should not have been spent in those schools and if it was pent it should be paid back. So I’m fascinated with his legal advice and noted that he didn’t table the Solicitor General‘s advice in estimates this week here in Tasmania – he read selectively from it the only way he can make his own position clearer is by releasing the entire advice from the Solicitor General, and if he doesn’t its only adds to the suggestion of the incompetence and duplicity of this Labor-Greens Government. I’m quite certain that the Federal Government will be demanding that money back and I note that even the Labor members for the Lower House in this State and Labor Senators are demanding the money back, and I’m quite happy to stand with them in support of these schools. This should not be a bi-partisan issue; this is an issue where we are standing up for parents and for students and for community. And I note that majority of these 20 schools being closed in Tasmania, enrolments are increasing and enrolments are suggested to increase further into the future. And as Tasmania is the state where more people live outside the Capital City then inside it and obviously that means it’s a diverse community of villages in many respects and towns and small communities, the local school is the life blood of the community. It provides so much employment, so much activity and the children in the community, if they can’t go to school, the families will leave. This is about the future of Tasmania the way it is today and Nick Mckim needs to listen rather then simply becoming a minister in an ivory tower far removed from the people he claims to represent.

Journalist: If the Federal government does get the money back, wouldn’t that mean that the battle is lost and the schools will close?

Christopher Pyne: No, if the federal Government gets the $13.5 million back, there will be no reason for the Tasmanian Labor-Greens government to close these schools because the savings that they had slated to make would not actually be worth the money that they were elected on, they would only get half of the money they claimed to save. We are talking about $26 million in savings if the Tasmanian State Government has to lose $13 million to the Federal Government then why would you bother to close the schools. And if the state Labor government refuses to pay back the $13.5 million the Federal Government should recoup that money in other measures from the Tasmanian Labor-Greens Government and there are many methods in which to do so.

Journalist: Would you support any kind of legal action or something along those lines?

Christopher Pyne: I don’t think legal action is required. If the Tasmanian Labor-Greens State Government refuses to pay the money back, the Federal Government can easily use other leavers in their relationship between the State and the Federal Government to recoup that money and therefore mean that their savings will be shared and as a consequence they wont go and get them.

ENDS