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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-04 Daily Xml
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ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:14): My question is to Minister for Education. Will the minister rule out deducting funds from the federal government's financial stimulus package in the form of charges to schools for the state government's role in managing the federally funded capital works projects? In the first round of federal government funded computer allocation, the state government attempted to charge schools a 4 per cent fee. It was forced to reduce this fee to 2.5 per cent after the opposition exposed the practice.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (15:14): I do not know that last bit: it sounds like a bit of nonsense.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley has asked his question.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The Premier and I are leaving tonight for Canberra for a meeting for most of tomorrow at which all premiers and treasurers will be in discussion with the federal government on the very issue about how the rollout out of this quite extraordinary program will be undertaken, the responsibilities of state governments to deliver those and the requirements of agencies in that process.

This is a real challenge to state governments around the country, and it will be a challenge to the private sector to deliver. The Prime Minister has made it very clear that he wants these projects rolled out in, I think, an 18-month period. We will have to go to work very hard. In fact, the Premier and I, other ministers and bureaucrats are meeting today, before we fly out, to get a basic understanding of what processes we need to put in place. However, once we get the rules from the commonwealth, we will abide by those if we sign off on them with the commonwealth and we will, of course, play by the rules the Prime Minister and the states agree to.

However, at this very point we have not discussed those matters between ministers, first ministers, treasurers and the federal government. Until such time, I cannot explain what the relationship will be in terms of those matters, but one would not expect the school to pick up that cost.

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