Building Better Schools Program

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:02): My question is again to the Minister for Education. Is it not true that Banksia Park International High School has been asked to return more than $1 million of the $9 million that was given to it under Building Better Schools by the South Australian taxpayer via the previous Labor government?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:03): I don't accept the characterisations in the member's statement. The member has identified money being given to a school. There is a commitment of a budget to an infrastructure project. If at Banksia Park, as the member suggests, that project has come in under budget, then that's good news for the taxpayer. What I can guarantee the member is that any funds in this program will be staying in this program for the benefit of public schools. Where possible, if there is indeed a saving to the budget at any individual school, then we will make sure that the scope of the project is delivered in full.

When the education department is working with schools to identify the scope of their project, meeting any budget, the absolute endeavour of the education department, as we outlined in estimates last week, is to ensure that that scope is appropriately costed. There are some schools where there has been a slight overrun and there are some schools where there may well be a project completed ahead of schedule or a project completed under budget. There may even be opportunities in some of those cases for the school to have things that were sought in the initial scope that had to be value-managed that can be restored to the scope.

I visited that project at Banksia Park a few weeks ago. The school, I've got to say, and the staff and the students I spoke to were pretty excited about it. They have a fantastic new facility. It's going to have a performing arts centre. It's going to have a commercial kitchen that will be available for use in the performing arts and in the work the school does through its other programs, in its VET programs. It's a school where the government has, over and above the identification of the grant the member for Wright has just raised, invested further funds in because it is one of our five new entrepreneurial high schools in South Australia.

That's a body of work that has infrastructure and recurrent funding that is well and truly over and above the investment offered by the former government, an investment that the former government said was a bad idea, a silly idea. But I can tell you what: at Banksia Park they are really excited about the new entrepreneurial spaces, which will only be enhanced by the extra build that is happening at the moment. At Banksia Park, they are also excited about the extra staff they are getting, which is even more important than the built infrastructure, the cost of which, I promise you, over the next couple of years will well and truly outstrip any budget saving that was there because their project came in—

Mr Picton: A budget cut.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The member describes it as a budget cut. Well, that's just a complete false characterisation. The member says that the project might have come in $1 million under budget. If that is indeed the case, then I promise you Banksia Park is going to do a lot better than that out of the entrepreneurial program alone. But the member has made a claim. I put to the member that if he spends some time at Banksia Park, talks to the staff, talks to the students, talks to the families on the governing council, the things they have been very excited about over the last couple of years are to the tremendous credit of that school.

Banksia Park has a new leadership position, leading their entrepreneurial program. Banksia Park has new programs in the entrepreneurial space, which this government has invested in, which are going to see businesses and industries connected with that school able to see the students who are already in this program, already appreciating this opportunity, not only being given extra skills if they want to start a small business one day but having that entrepreneurial mindset, where they can be in a large organisation or a small one, a business or a social enterprise, and able to really drive an entrepreneurial mindset through that program. This is a required investment, and it is an investment which, over the course of the term of this government and beyond, will be well and truly above anything that Labor ever offered.