SCHOOL COMPUTERS

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:14): My question is to the Minister for Education. Why is the government charging those state schools that have been successful in round 1 of the National Secondary School Computer Fund a $40—

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

Mr PISONI: And who do you think gave it to The Advertiser, you goose?

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PISONI: Unbelievable.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley will withdraw the word 'goose'.

Mr PISONI: I withdraw calling the Treasurer 'goose', sir. I will start again. Why is the minister charging those state schools that have been successful in round 1 of the National Secondary School Computer Fund a $40 commission fee on top of the $6 per head annual fee for current computer licences, and withholding up to $250 per computer to cover licence fees, when non-government schools are being allocated the full $1,000 per computer and have negotiated an additional administration amount from the commonwealth?

In answer to questions during estimates about the provision in the state budget to fund commonwealth election commitments for the digital revolution, the minister told the house that there would be no additional costs because:

We also have sufficient licences because we have many licences in our schools and these are replacement computers.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:15): I think those opposite might be the only people in South Australia who would complain about funds flowing to education in South Australia from the commonwealth government. The reality is that it is, I think, a $1.2 billion package to provide computers for children in schools.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The house will come to order!

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: This is a federal government program which was calculated at a thousand dollars per computer per placement in schools. The reality is that the whole program has to rely on federal government rules and their compliance issues, and one of the areas that has allowed the purchase of the computers has been bulk orders. I believe that non-government systems are indeed involved in bulk ordering, because you would know that a computer box does generally cost more than, say, a thousand dollars if you buy it individually or privately. So, the federal government has allowed—wait for it—systems of education across the country to bulk buy computers, and when you bulk buy computers, guess what, they cost less.

But whether you send your children to a public or a private school, whether you buy your computer individually or by bulk, you can never avoid the licensing costs from Microsoft. The reality is that if you have a computer already and you have a licence for that computer, if you buy a new computer in a school, you can reuse the old licence. So, in the first program purchases, where many of the computers were replacement computers, the overall cost of buying licences was reduced because, where there were already licences in place and the computer box was replaced, a new licence was not required to be bought.

Having explained that, the notional thousand dollars which comes into the system where there were extra funds and where there were replacement computers without a new licence, there were larger funds left over from the residual purchase. That money was then allocated to the schools for their use for whatever needs within the limits on which the federal government allowed the funding to be spent; that was then allocated to the schools. It does not actually matter whether the computer is in a public or a private school. There are always licensing fees and costs involved.

Clearly, the federal government has initiated this program. It is a $1.2 billion program, from memory. It is a massive investment in education across this country but, whatever the member for Unley thinks, if you have to buy a licensing fee, it will be illegal to operate that computer without having the coverage of the licensing costs, and you have to buy a licence if it is a new computer. If it is an old computer and a licence is in place, you do not have to make that investment.