Transcript - ABC 891 Two Chrisses - 3 June 2009

Excerpts Only

SUBJECTS: Cleve Area School; Tussle in the Party Room.

(Greetings Omitted)

Pyne:

The complaint is that is that the so-called Building the Education Revolution is getting stuck in the weeds in the detail, because Cleve Area School is a very good example of where delivery on the ground is failing manifestly. In March the Cleve Area School was told by the state Department of Education that they would receive eight classrooms at a cost of around $2 million. By this month, by June that had become 'a collection of transportable classrooms with decking'. So in March it was eight, in April they were told it was six, in May they were told it was four and in June they've been told it was a collection of transportables with decking, but for the same price. So they've got half the building for the same price, and my real concern is that state governments and private corporations are profiteering from the fact that there is so much money being pumped into the Building the Education Revolution that they're able to increase their charges to the Federal Government and profiteer out of it. I think it is a real concern.

Journalist:

Were the classrooms always going to be transportables?

Pyne:

I don't know if they were always going to be transportables, the latest description of them is a group of tranpsortables with decking...

Journalist:

But they had originally wanted an eight classroom building, is that right?

Pyne:

They were originally told they could have an eight classroom building...

Journalist:

And that wasn't going to be transportable?

Pyne:

That was going to be similar to a school, a school in the area, whether they're going to be transportable is less important that the fact they've gone from eight to four.

Journalist:

Why didn't they want a school hall? Or an iconic...

Pyne:

Why don't they want a school hall?

Journalist:

Let me put it another, would you be able to, would they have got their money easier if they had said, well, we want to put up a school hall?

Pyne:

Well probably, they probably would have had a prefabricated school hall, or gymnasium or library built in the school, but they actually needed the classrooms. We've got a situation in Queensland, just to go off this tangentially... where a school that's been using the town hall next to the school for about 100 years has been told that they can't have money for classrooms even though they need new classrooms, they have to have it for a school hall, so they'll have two halls standing alongside each other, which is a total waste of money. I mean the Government, so busy is it to pump out this money into the economy they're not giving people what they need. They're giving people what the Government demands that they have, even if it's quite illogical.

Journalist:

Christopher Pyne what's to stop a school from, you know like sometimes people get approval on a block to build a shed, and then they'll line it and it becomes a little house, it just happens to have a toilet and shower in it. Are schools able to build halls that double up as classrooms or not?

Pyne:

The guidelines are very specific and schools aren't even able to spend money on air conditioning, so if a school in Cooper Pedy needs new air conditioning, they cannot fund it under the Building the Education Revolution, because they guidelines are that specific...

Journalist:

I understood that they could use it for classrooms though?

Pyne:

No they can use it for classrooms, they can use the money for school halls, the point is in the Cleve Area School that is a classic example of where the detail is not being followed through by the Minister because they've gone from eight classrooms to four classrooms for exactly the same amount of money.

Journalist:

But hang on Christopher Pyne. They thought they were going to get eight, but they were never going to get eight because someone didn't do their sums right. The Government to its credit has crunched the numbers further and looked exactly what you can get for that amount of money, because the process is being rushed and the Government hasn't apologised for that. They said we're rushing it for a very goods reason, and now we've worked out you'll get four.

Pyne:

No I think that's rubbish.

Journalist:

I think it's a pretty good question, how do you know it's rubbish?

Pyne:

Well with due respect...

Journalist:

With due respect its rubbish

Pyne:

With due respect is always a phrase for 'I think that's rubbish' but nevertheless in March they were told they could have eight classrooms, and a school nearby, for $1.85 million in 2005 was provided with eight classrooms, and Cleve thought we'll get the same thing, it will be good for us, and $1.85 has probably gone up to $2 million, so we actually have a live living example near Cleve of a school that spent $1.85 million four years ago and got eight classrooms.

Journalist:

Now Christopher Pyne, just finally, we know your hands are registered weapons. Were you involved in the stoush, the physical altercation between your colleagues? Were you called in to break it up in the Party Room yesterday?

Pyne:

Well if I was involved I probably would have been in the story that appeared in the newspapers, so clearly I wasn't. Unfortunately sometimes things happen, and sometimes they're best not canvassed in the press. Of course the wonderful thing about politics is that everything is always canvassed in the press...

Journalist:

That's what we like about it...

Pyne:

Which is what you love...

ENDS